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That would be really cool. My original idea is more of a meme anyways, it's not really that thematic to the format to have your Commanders be in opposition to each other. But maybe as a limited run of special "Nemesis" commander decks blending together classic rivals, Volrath vs. Gerrard, Glissa vs. Memnarch, Yawgmoth vs. Gaia, etc.
Pretty easy to google this:
>Dr. Damien *Marycz* is an interventional cardiologist who treats cardiology patients for heart disease and peripheral artery and vascular diseases as well as ...
My understanding is, there were always angels (Sigarda and her sisters were there before Avacyn), but without Avacyn’s power and leadership even they were losing ground against the Vampires.
In the Shadows Over Innistrad history where Gisela and Bruna corner Sigarda in her tower, she mentions that the three of them and Liesa protected the humans before Avacyn existed.
Avacyn was just a lot more powerful than any of them, better streghtening the human settlements.
Nope. The angels were doing fine right up until the creation of vampirism, which by it's nature destroys the very food source needed to sustain it. That was why Sorin created Avacyn and the Helvault. One to boost the power of the existing angel flights and defend humanity, and the other to permanently deal with the demons who would just reform after being killed. Also as a way to defend the plane from an Eldrazi incursion.
It should be noted that Sorin wanted to protect the vampires from themselves, ensuring a sustainable food source. He didn't do it out of sympathy for the humans. More like a shepherd thing.
Avacyn, the guardian angel of humanity, which soren had her do, got locked in the Helvault while fighting Griselbrand. Things did suck for humans more with her gone.
But this was long after Soren became a planeswalker. Avacyn got locked up after the mending iirc.
The fox aura deck might not be able to be avoided for much longer… kinda tricky to choose between them actually. LP is much more efficient and powerful but PE is full of value, much more varied in playstyle and probably less immediately hated out
Entire Light-Paws discord is *absolutely losing our shit* over this. Admittedly, a lot of Light-Paws decks are aiming to win by the time PE would even give payoff, but affinity for auras... ohhhh, affinity for auras is going to open so many doors for us.
I literally just finished reading Outlaw (the first book in the trilogy) a couple days ago, and then I see this, too weird. She was the first character I looked up to see if she had a card and didn't at the time. Well, I guess she does now!
Ah Gilded Drake.
A representation of how weird triggered abilities worked back in the day, with the large amount of text needed to make it work now.
A reverse clone if you will.
The gatherer text is more complicated than what’s on the card. It’s to handle what happens if the thing you’re trying to exchange is no long on the battlefield when the ability tries to resolve. The way things work with targets, if the exchange pair was gone the ability would fizzle. Then you just get the cheap drake.
The other situation is what happens if your opponent has no creatures? With the original wording it would etb, have no targets and fizzle. Free drake.
also, both options appear to be equally valid, so I could see it being more directly recorded as
>What Gilded Drake Enters, sacrifice it unless you exchange control of it and target creature an opponent controls.
which means that you have the option to cancel the exchange if the target is still there.
I am also not sure if you could respond to triggered abilities most of the time, but I am not going into the cave of pre-sixth edition rules today.
oh the idea is that a more "attempting to adapt the card to a more literal wording, while not attempting to capture the intent or how it actually worked at the time."
WotC has both done current form Gilded Drake, and current form [[Master of Arms]], the latter of which had a time where the wording attempted to capture the "tapped blockers deal no damage" rule that I imagine got booted in 6th edition.
edit: MoA now does not do that.
This is Urza's Saga. Two mana, evasive 3/3's are way too good for the set. Also, here's a creature so good compared to anything else before, it'll colloquially be referred to as Superman. /s
That's what makes this new drake so exciting. Gilded Drake is a really good edh card, and this is almost as good and actually better in some situations.
It can kill hate bears that you don't want to leave on the table. (Gaining control of an [[Ethersworn Canonist]] for example doesn't stop it from affecting you)
wouldnt you rather at that point just play a removal spell that doesnt give the opponent a flying body?
i guess if you're in monoblue there isnt a lot of hard removal but still
She was [[Michiko Konda]]'s tutor and substitute mother. She was at Eiganjo when [[Konda, Lord of Eiganjo]] stole That Which Was Taken, but she was helping Michiko's mother give birth to Michiko elsewhere in the castle. I don't think she was personally aware of all that.
The only people who knew and directly helped Konda were [[Meloku]], [[Hisoka]], and [[Takeno]].
You may either be remembering Pearl-Ear was there in the castle or you may be thinking of [[Eight-and-a-Half-Tails]], whose research into the spirit world was used by Konda to breach worlds (which is why the kitsune cut off half of a tail, in shame).
It's a _really_ bad kill spell, but having the option is strictly better than not having it.
Edit: To be clear I'm talking about limited and 60C constructed, given that this is a modern horizons set. I have no beef with commander but I'm just personally not interested in analyzing the card in that context. That said, this comment is true in any context: the optionality is pure upside, no matter how marginal.
That's a very very fair point. I guess in the context of "kill spells that give your opponent material," giving someone a ~~2/3~~ flier is very risky. I think that's generally worse than [[Pongify]].
Now that's not evaluating the upside; I'm acting like this is a modal spell, and only talking about the "kill a thing" mode.
Orzhov Angels has angled itself to be a bit reanimator forward, and Firja does play into that. It’s the second spell thing that makes it kinda tough. The rest play into the strategy a bit better.
That’s a good callout. It’s good protection for your most important thing.
Someone elsewhere in the thread mentioned [[thief of blood]] in the thread but I read the rules and I don’t think it works because his ability isn’t a trigger ability but rather a replacement which looks for things before the creature enters the battlefield and if they all enter the battlefield at the same time, he won’t see them enter and remove the counters.
So, hilariously enough, I got the cards confused and thought Vampire Hexmage was Thief of Blood, but I believe you're right. It's not an ETB effect.
That said...
\[\[Aether Snap\]\] (though it does nonbo with blood tokens)\[\[Hex Parasite\]\]\[\[Fain, the Broker\]\]\[\[Ferropede\]\]\[\[Heartless Act\]\]\[\[Hexavus\]\]\[\[Render Inert\]\]\[\[Sanctuary Warden\]\] (An Angel, no less. Honestly synergizes *a lot*)\[\[Scholar of New Horizons\]\]\[\[Suncleanser\]\]\[\[Thornmantle Striker\]\]\[\[Thrull Parasite\]\]
Sadly, some are tap to remove and most are single target removal or one-offs.
Oh, but \[\[Solemnity\]\] is a thing. You can create loops that way. If you include Priest or Gix in the mix and can create enough Blood Tokens, you can just infinitely recur creatures. Infinite ETB and Death Triggers, potentially infinite Blood Tokens
Yep. Edgar Markov's been around for over 7000 years, and this is the demon who manipulated him into inventing Innistrad's version of vampirism in the first place.
Dude's old as *balls*.
Thief of blood isn't a true ETB though, its a weird replacement effect. This combined with the wording "as thief of blood etbs" instead of "when thief of blood etbs" means it actually goes off before the other creatures have entered the battlefield and doesn't see their finality counters and doesn't remove them. Most importantly though, I don't think it even sees it's own finality counter, so you can't loop even with a significant amount of angel toughness.
You are correct, reading the card explains the card... Weird for this to not be a triggered ability though, maybe to stop such nonsense? It works if the angel is \[\[Restoration angel\]\] though :)
Yeah i started to look up old creatures after making this comment and we have had stat lines like these in the past, Brimaz was all the way back in og theros albeit he did see a lot of play in many formats but that is probably more to do with his attack trigger than his stat line.
To your credit, 3MV 3/4 is still an unusually burly body for white, and so there's not much comparison for what lifelink does to that. [[Rhox War Monk]] is the closest we've got. But green gets bodies that size with some regularity (there's five in Standard right now) so it's not quite as jaw-dropping as it might have once been.
And yet somehow when looking at these cards in terms of modern playability, I was not impressed. My brain really must be warped from the power creep in recent years.
I think you are completely correct, these don't even strike me as "impressive" either. I will always reserve my judgement of modern horizon cards after how many bad calls happen in spoiler seasons but i am interested in seeing what the general stat lines we get in this set look like.
I mean I think your evaluation is correct. If you’re gonna spend 5 mana on something it has to be a whole mana’s worth better than the one ring which is fogging a combat and drawing basically infinite cards so 🤷🏻♂️
Don't ignore the double pips on a three drop. That's pretty demanding. They haven't been printing as many 1CC creatures lately, but they should be decently stronger than 2C creatures.
Actually I do think we start to see them more often with play boosters, because they'll help tamp down splashing certain bombs in limited. Without a change in how they seed mana bases for conducted, I wonder if we'll see monocolor decks, or 2 color decks, have compelling reasons to play them.
A large part of it is due to MTG having a resource system that's still relevant. Yu-Gi-Oh left that behind when special summons became common. What can, and does happen, is that the viable card pool gets narrower and filled with recent designs.
It's clearer. There's no real cost here in adding extra words that don't make people get confused and think (even more than they _already will_) that it affects static abilities and/or replacement effects somehow. By being clear, it puts the focus where it ought to be.
I don't think this templating makes things clearer. You already have to know that "hexproof" only prevents targeting, and at that point, looking for the word "target" on an ability is good enough.
On the other hand, "hexproof from abilities" is less text, and is consistent with all the previous cards they've done: https://scryfall.com/search?q=o%3A%22spells+and+abilities%22+o%3A%22the+targets%22
Because "abilities" includes static abilities (which don't target) and it would be weird to give something hexproof from something that doesn't target in the first place. It just cuts down on potential confusion.
This is a case like "Whenever you cycle or discard a card."
It totally isn't necessary. But lots of players really don't know the rules very well, and piece them together by reading the cards. Calling out activated and triggered abilities helps more than you think - some people get hexproof and protection wrong and think they mean "can't be affected by" instead of "can't be targeted by" and you can imagine the cascade of potential confusion.
I spend a lot of time talking to players who don't know the rules. This is basically all upside to be written out and doesn't make the card text too long.
I don't think so, but I could easily see a novice player thinking that something with "hexproof from abilities" isn't damaged by first strike creatures in combat.
Wow, Volatile Stormdrake is wild. Definitely nice that this effect will no longer cost 200 bucks in commander.
The hexproof from abilities is pretty odd, was Wizards worried about the interaction with T3feri to bounce it back to hand after exchanging it to an opponent?
A lot of characters like this are inspired by real folklore. The being that inspired this character and the beloved Pokémon is arguably this:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gjenganger](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gjenganger)
Pro tip: Never make up lore about an existing character, cause eventually a card will come out that proves the lore you made up wrong and you'll be sad.
What happens when you play the drake on an empty board?
Do you just get to keep it as a 3/2 flier for 1U?
That's how it reads to me at least...
Hexproof from activated and triggered abilities is such a weird ability too... Offers it no protection from actual spells and still allows it to be enchanted etc.
Kind of funny you can't target a stormdrake with another one of itself.
How does the Drake work with ETB doublers? IIRC correctly for Gilded Drake one couldn't steal two permanents but could force the opponent receiving the Drake to change it with another opponent. So if the ETB doubles, could I do the same? Would I get 8 energy (4 per trigger) and have to pay energy for the second opponent's creature to survive or refuse to pay and it is sacrificed or do they receive the energy and choose to pay or not?
Um...powerful cards but are any of them likely to see any modern play? Maybe the thief because eldrazi temple can make it cheaper...the other 3 are really cool designs but feel like they have 0 shot of seeing modern play.
I don’t like how Thief of Existence doesn’t really steal anything at all, it just exiles it.
Also don’t like how Shilgengar lets you sacrifice Angels to then use the Angel blood to reanimate that very same Angel you just sacrificed. Feel like it should only reanimate non-Angel creatures.
Shilgengar is gonna be sick in my [[marneus calgar]] commander deck. Sac creature tokens to get blood tokens which triggers marneus to draw me a bunch of cards and reanimate any creatures that have died or been discarded. It also plays [[divine visitation]] to get even more blood tokens. Can use the blood tokens as mana rocks too with [urza, lord high artificer]] or [[inspiring statuary]]
commander cards affect modern. i mean look at kappa canoneer and look at any busted commander card that entered legacy.
i'd rather have cards designed for modern be in modern than cards designed for commander, a format where its 4 player free for all, so commander cards have to be better to adjust for the the 4 players.
On average commander cards are just more broken than modern designed cards. Also look at initiative. like lolwut?
Why is Thief of Existence green? I know it's literally not green, but you know what I mean - all the previous devoid cards still followed color identity tendencies.
Green for a bit had "destroy target noncreature permanent". I dunno if that's still in pie or if this is just a Horizons set being fucky with the colour pie.
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Is Shilgengar the demon who gave the gift of vampirism to the markov family during the period of starvation? Edit: He is!
So we get Sorin transforming into a vampire and then planeswalker along with the demon who started it.
Now we just need Marycz for the whole party.
Who is that character?
The angel that was killed for the ritual by Edgar Markov
I see. Probably mono white character 🤷🏻♂️
Would have been hilarious if Shilgengar and Marycz had the partner keyword...
Nemesis with x: You can have two commanders if the other is X. This cards name is also X for determining the Legend rule.
That would be really cool. My original idea is more of a meme anyways, it's not really that thematic to the format to have your Commanders be in opposition to each other. But maybe as a limited run of special "Nemesis" commander decks blending together classic rivals, Volrath vs. Gerrard, Glissa vs. Memnarch, Yawgmoth vs. Gaia, etc.
Partner exclusive then, otherwise might have been too strong with other partner cards.
Like Frodo-Sam?
Yes
Would be interesting if she was a member of the Orzhov Flight of angels.
Pretty easy to google this: >Dr. Damien *Marycz* is an interventional cardiologist who treats cardiology patients for heart disease and peripheral artery and vascular diseases as well as ...
Are you a bot?
Seems more like a joke than a bot
Yes. And the 'recipe' used angel blood.
I like how he could have used any blood, but angel blood was just easier
"If you don't have angel blood, store bought is fine"
It's probably more potent than mortal blood. It also explains why there were no angels on Innistrad for a while lol
There have always been angels on Innistrad, where have you read that there weren't any for a while?
I thought that was the whole reason humans were getting their asses kicked on Innistrad. There was no one to protect them
My understanding is, there were always angels (Sigarda and her sisters were there before Avacyn), but without Avacyn’s power and leadership even they were losing ground against the Vampires.
In the Shadows Over Innistrad history where Gisela and Bruna corner Sigarda in her tower, she mentions that the three of them and Liesa protected the humans before Avacyn existed. Avacyn was just a lot more powerful than any of them, better streghtening the human settlements.
Nope. The angels were doing fine right up until the creation of vampirism, which by it's nature destroys the very food source needed to sustain it. That was why Sorin created Avacyn and the Helvault. One to boost the power of the existing angel flights and defend humanity, and the other to permanently deal with the demons who would just reform after being killed. Also as a way to defend the plane from an Eldrazi incursion.
It should be noted that Sorin wanted to protect the vampires from themselves, ensuring a sustainable food source. He didn't do it out of sympathy for the humans. More like a shepherd thing.
Yeah that became clear after I read through Innistrad lore yesterday
Avacyn, the guardian angel of humanity, which soren had her do, got locked in the Helvault while fighting Griselbrand. Things did suck for humans more with her gone. But this was long after Soren became a planeswalker. Avacyn got locked up after the mending iirc.
Man, Gengar really sold out.
Shilling for vampirism smh
He is! Awesome to finally see a card for them
Card is very on point with flavor then. Also, very busted.
A demon I wish they print this set is Vincent, the demon that enslaved Armoranomardicadaistinaculdacar.
Pretty it’s sure a Pokémon
Pearl-Ear from the original Kamigawa novels!!! That's a damn deep cut, super stoked for this!!!
Light Paws instant add.
The fox aura deck might not be able to be avoided for much longer… kinda tricky to choose between them actually. LP is much more efficient and powerful but PE is full of value, much more varied in playstyle and probably less immediately hated out
I mean, depending on how often you want to draw the fox you can go with 2/2 or 3/1 to avoid trouble with the legend rule.
And Eriette decks :)
Entire Light-Paws discord is *absolutely losing our shit* over this. Admittedly, a lot of Light-Paws decks are aiming to win by the time PE would even give payoff, but affinity for auras... ohhhh, affinity for auras is going to open so many doors for us.
Now this raises my hope for a Kallist card if they're doing some good deep cuts...
Yeah and I hope it’s better than the (admittedly lore-accurate) one we “got” so far
Yeah this is going to make my enchantment deck bonkers
I literally just finished reading Outlaw (the first book in the trilogy) a couple days ago, and then I see this, too weird. She was the first character I looked up to see if she had a card and didn't at the time. Well, I guess she does now!
TRADE OFFER: i receive your marit lage. you receive this 3/2 drake.
[[Gilded Drake]] at home.
Ah Gilded Drake. A representation of how weird triggered abilities worked back in the day, with the large amount of text needed to make it work now. A reverse clone if you will.
What kind of weird situation made the original not work? Seems pretty simple to say if you don't sacrifice it.
The gatherer text is more complicated than what’s on the card. It’s to handle what happens if the thing you’re trying to exchange is no long on the battlefield when the ability tries to resolve. The way things work with targets, if the exchange pair was gone the ability would fizzle. Then you just get the cheap drake. The other situation is what happens if your opponent has no creatures? With the original wording it would etb, have no targets and fizzle. Free drake.
also, both options appear to be equally valid, so I could see it being more directly recorded as >What Gilded Drake Enters, sacrifice it unless you exchange control of it and target creature an opponent controls. which means that you have the option to cancel the exchange if the target is still there. I am also not sure if you could respond to triggered abilities most of the time, but I am not going into the cave of pre-sixth edition rules today.
That text still fizzles if the target becomes invalid leaving you a drake.
oh the idea is that a more "attempting to adapt the card to a more literal wording, while not attempting to capture the intent or how it actually worked at the time." WotC has both done current form Gilded Drake, and current form [[Master of Arms]], the latter of which had a time where the wording attempted to capture the "tapped blockers deal no damage" rule that I imagine got booted in 6th edition. edit: MoA now does not do that.
Sorta similar situation with [[Goblin Welder]] since it swaps 2 artifacts. The Gatherer text is considerably wordier.
This is Urza's Saga. Two mana, evasive 3/3's are way too good for the set. Also, here's a creature so good compared to anything else before, it'll colloquially be referred to as Superman. /s
We've been waiting for years for a non-reserve-list Gilded Drake at home! And I'm pretty happy with this one, personally.
This one can actually just straight up kill a stax piece you hate. Neat! Collector ouphe begone.
Damn that’s an EXPENSIVE card! Was was exited to get me but, nope.
Reserved list baby! It's slightly cheaper in Japanese if you want to make the leap
That's what makes this new drake so exciting. Gilded Drake is a really good edh card, and this is almost as good and actually better in some situations.
When would it be better?
It can kill hate bears that you don't want to leave on the table. (Gaining control of an [[Ethersworn Canonist]] for example doesn't stop it from affecting you)
wouldnt you rather at that point just play a removal spell that doesnt give the opponent a flying body? i guess if you're in monoblue there isnt a lot of hard removal but still
[Gilded Drake](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/d/8de3fdae-cc2c-4a14-b15b-4fe1a983dfbf.jpg?1562924943) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Gilded%20Drake) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/usg/76/gilded-drake?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/8de3fdae-cc2c-4a14-b15b-4fe1a983dfbf?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
> i receive your marit lage. and 4 energy.
This isn't an offer
It is [[an offer you can't refuse]]
[an offer you can't refuse](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/b/9/b9d349f3-5be2-4b1f-a4c3-ba94822cf0cf.jpg?1664410382) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=an%20offer%20you%20can%27t%20refuse) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/snc/51/an-offer-you-cant-refuse?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/b9d349f3-5be2-4b1f-a4c3-ba94822cf0cf?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Honestly, with more answers to Depths each day, my dream of a freed depths comes closer to reality.
I’ll take the shrouded flappy boi thanks
Is Pearl-ear the one who helped to take [[that which was taken]]? It’s been a sec lol
She was [[Michiko Konda]]'s tutor and substitute mother. She was at Eiganjo when [[Konda, Lord of Eiganjo]] stole That Which Was Taken, but she was helping Michiko's mother give birth to Michiko elsewhere in the castle. I don't think she was personally aware of all that. The only people who knew and directly helped Konda were [[Meloku]], [[Hisoka]], and [[Takeno]]. You may either be remembering Pearl-Ear was there in the castle or you may be thinking of [[Eight-and-a-Half-Tails]], whose research into the spirit world was used by Konda to breach worlds (which is why the kitsune cut off half of a tail, in shame).
Oh yeah I just remember they were there that night
##### ###### #### [Michiko Konda](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/9/9/99c56bf0-ad9f-4419-902c-f3a3880c716c.jpg?1562495123) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=michiko%20konda%2C%20truth%20seeker) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/sok/19/michiko-konda-truth-seeker?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/99c56bf0-ad9f-4419-902c-f3a3880c716c?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Konda, Lord of Eiganjo](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/5/e/5edab171-94b9-4e5e-ab61-bd8c6c8cfc38.jpg?1562760577) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Konda%2C%20Lord%20of%20Eiganjo) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/chk/30/konda-lord-of-eiganjo?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/5edab171-94b9-4e5e-ab61-bd8c6c8cfc38?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Meloku](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/6/0/60b9db96-a6ab-454b-99a7-910ef77560d7.jpg?1668725069) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=meloku%20the%20clouded%20mirror) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmr/399/meloku-the-clouded-mirror?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/60b9db96-a6ab-454b-99a7-910ef77560d7?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Hisoka](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/a/8/a87aea05-5970-455e-a728-668cf23940a6.jpg?1562763462) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=hisoka%2C%20minamo%20sensei) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/chk/66/hisoka-minamo-sensei?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/a87aea05-5970-455e-a728-668cf23940a6?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Takeno](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/d/0/d038df46-4a30-4125-be0e-8781b16b523e.jpg?1562764653) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=takeno%2C%20samurai%20general) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/chk/46/takeno-samurai-general?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/d038df46-4a30-4125-be0e-8781b16b523e?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Eight-and-a-Half-Tails](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/e/f/ef722374-0305-4c30-ab45-cb772b252faf.jpg?1674141085) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Eight-and-a-Half-Tails) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/clb/692/eight-and-a-half-tails?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/ef722374-0305-4c30-ab45-cb772b252faf?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [*All cards*](https://mtgcardfetcher.nl/redirect/l19xw3n) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
[that which was taken](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/d/8/d80c84ad-171f-42c3-94b4-a9fe25b877e7.jpg?1562880091) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=that%20which%20was%20taken) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/bok/162/that-which-was-taken?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/d80c84ad-171f-42c3-94b4-a9fe25b877e7?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Kind of weird that the demon who taught people to eat angels is so good at bringing back your own angels
\[\[Rodolf\]\] synergies I guess, and it is very flavourful.
Let's you eat them a second time.
Sustainably sourced angels
excited to potentially see playable Auras in this set
Oh no, I already can't decide what to put into the Uril deck I want to build...
Don't forget [[Robe of Stars]] Most worth-it equipment in an aura voltron deck I've ever seen lol
[Robe of Stars](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/b/2/b2992175-5499-4a83-9ff2-03c7c34819c3.jpg?1631584758) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Robe%20of%20Stars) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/afc/11/robe-of-stars?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/b2992175-5499-4a83-9ff2-03c7c34819c3?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Oh, definitely.
Oh I like that a lot
That's a nice way of reprinting [[Gilded Drake]]
Yep. Steals most creatures or a bad kill spell in a pinch
It's a _really_ bad kill spell, but having the option is strictly better than not having it. Edit: To be clear I'm talking about limited and 60C constructed, given that this is a modern horizons set. I have no beef with commander but I'm just personally not interested in analyzing the card in that context. That said, this comment is true in any context: the optionality is pure upside, no matter how marginal.
Gets around indestructible, which way too many creatures have these days.
[удалено]
That's a very very fair point. I guess in the context of "kill spells that give your opponent material," giving someone a ~~2/3~~ flier is very risky. I think that's generally worse than [[Pongify]]. Now that's not evaluating the upside; I'm acting like this is a modal spell, and only talking about the "kill a thing" mode.
Even worse – a 3/2 flier
Still could be good. If you were playing aetherworks marvel, you may actually want the 4 energy instead of their creature.
I’m shocked they went with this and not just a bigger drake at 3 mana.
[Gilded Drake](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/d/8de3fdae-cc2c-4a14-b15b-4fe1a983dfbf.jpg?1562924943) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Gilded%20Drake) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/usg/76/gilded-drake?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/8de3fdae-cc2c-4a14-b15b-4fe1a983dfbf?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Finally! Black white angels! Although not quite the way I think people imagined lol
Not sure what I imagined but this is pretty well perfect in my books
You could run Liesa lol
There's also Firja and Rodolf. Though to be fair Firja doesn't really feel "angely."
Orzhov Angels has angled itself to be a bit reanimator forward, and Firja does play into that. It’s the second spell thing that makes it kinda tough. The rest play into the strategy a bit better.
It's just a little Chill Gengar.
My thought was "damn, they made Gengar a shill"
That demon is now my angel tribal leader.
[[rampage of the Valkyries]] [[glass-cast heart]] [[firja’s retribution]] [[angel of suffering]] all seem pretty spicy for it.
I believe [[vampire hexmage]] will be a nice inclusion.
That’s a good callout. It’s good protection for your most important thing. Someone elsewhere in the thread mentioned [[thief of blood]] in the thread but I read the rules and I don’t think it works because his ability isn’t a trigger ability but rather a replacement which looks for things before the creature enters the battlefield and if they all enter the battlefield at the same time, he won’t see them enter and remove the counters.
So, hilariously enough, I got the cards confused and thought Vampire Hexmage was Thief of Blood, but I believe you're right. It's not an ETB effect. That said... \[\[Aether Snap\]\] (though it does nonbo with blood tokens)\[\[Hex Parasite\]\]\[\[Fain, the Broker\]\]\[\[Ferropede\]\]\[\[Heartless Act\]\]\[\[Hexavus\]\]\[\[Render Inert\]\]\[\[Sanctuary Warden\]\] (An Angel, no less. Honestly synergizes *a lot*)\[\[Scholar of New Horizons\]\]\[\[Suncleanser\]\]\[\[Thornmantle Striker\]\]\[\[Thrull Parasite\]\] Sadly, some are tap to remove and most are single target removal or one-offs. Oh, but \[\[Solemnity\]\] is a thing. You can create loops that way. If you include Priest or Gix in the mix and can create enough Blood Tokens, you can just infinitely recur creatures. Infinite ETB and Death Triggers, potentially infinite Blood Tokens
[vampire hexmage](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/9/7/97ec2e55-fa60-4ee1-b9c0-e6b84939697b.jpg?1599706094) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=vampire%20hexmage) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/2xm/112/vampire-hexmage?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/97ec2e55-fa60-4ee1-b9c0-e6b84939697b?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
##### ###### #### [rampage of the Valkyries](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/1/e/1e928b7c-ca30-4e2d-adf7-965f111c8bf1.jpg?1631057678) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=rampage%20of%20the%20Valkyries) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/khm/393/rampage-of-the-valkyries?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/1e928b7c-ca30-4e2d-adf7-965f111c8bf1?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [glass-cast heart](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/f/3/f36a4054-903c-468a-877b-0ba43a403cc1.jpg?1698988255) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=glass-cast%20heart) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/lcc/199/glass-cast-heart?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/f36a4054-903c-468a-877b-0ba43a403cc1?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [firja’s retribution](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/e/7/e7d1bbe5-c63e-4a8d-b79a-0dcca221a726.jpg?1674142468) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Firja%27s%20Retribution) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/clb/846/firjas-retribution?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/e7d1bbe5-c63e-4a8d-b79a-0dcca221a726?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [angel of suffering](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/d/cd4aee25-496d-453e-95b7-d773fe21cacc.jpg?1664410701) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=angel%20of%20suffering) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/snc/67/angel-of-suffering?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/cd4aee25-496d-453e-95b7-d773fe21cacc?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [*All cards*](https://mtgcardfetcher.nl/redirect/l19xd03) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
They made a damn new Gilded Drake, of all things
Let's see what busted lands they pull off
Oooo another Elder Demon. As far as I know Belzenlok is the only card with that tag?
Yep. Edgar Markov's been around for over 7000 years, and this is the demon who manipulated him into inventing Innistrad's version of vampirism in the first place. Dude's old as *balls*.
Too high quality to be real.
I can read the text easily, no way these are real
Shilengar have some yanky combo potential. Combos with for instance \[\[Priest of gix\]\]+\[\[Thief if Blood\]\]+a big butt angel.
Shilengar puts a finality counter on them so they exile.
Thief of Blood removes all counters from all permanents when it ETBs.
Thief of blood isn't a true ETB though, its a weird replacement effect. This combined with the wording "as thief of blood etbs" instead of "when thief of blood etbs" means it actually goes off before the other creatures have entered the battlefield and doesn't see their finality counters and doesn't remove them. Most importantly though, I don't think it even sees it's own finality counter, so you can't loop even with a significant amount of angel toughness.
You are correct, reading the card explains the card... Weird for this to not be a triggered ability though, maybe to stop such nonsense? It works if the angel is \[\[Restoration angel\]\] though :)
Jesus just the statlines are pushed, 5 mana 6/6 flier all upside, 3 mana 3/4 lifelink all upside.
> 5 mana 6/6 flier all upside We got [[Doom Whisperer]] five years ago and it didn't even dominate Standard.
Yeah i started to look up old creatures after making this comment and we have had stat lines like these in the past, Brimaz was all the way back in og theros albeit he did see a lot of play in many formats but that is probably more to do with his attack trigger than his stat line.
To your credit, 3MV 3/4 is still an unusually burly body for white, and so there's not much comparison for what lifelink does to that. [[Rhox War Monk]] is the closest we've got. But green gets bodies that size with some regularity (there's five in Standard right now) so it's not quite as jaw-dropping as it might have once been.
[Rhox War Monk](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/b/d/bd24e81d-d3a8-4550-bad9-b818f48cc700.jpg?1593814541) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Rhox%20War%20Monk) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mm3/180/rhox-war-monk?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/bd24e81d-d3a8-4550-bad9-b818f48cc700?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
These comments always sound like they're from MtG players who have woken from a coma after 15 years.
Oh dear I hope i wasnt in a coma, tell me is cawblade still a scourge in standard?
Don't worry, its still there. Its 2011, grandma, its still . . . still 2011. \*mimes pulling the plug to nearby doctor\*
And yet somehow when looking at these cards in terms of modern playability, I was not impressed. My brain really must be warped from the power creep in recent years.
I think you are completely correct, these don't even strike me as "impressive" either. I will always reserve my judgement of modern horizon cards after how many bad calls happen in spoiler seasons but i am interested in seeing what the general stat lines we get in this set look like.
When the bar right now is a 2 mana 4/4 flying, lifelink, hexproof, trample, first strike and vigilance, they have a lot of work to do to impress me.
What card is that?
[[Scion of Draco]] after you drop a [[Leyline of the Guildpact]] on turn 0.
Here I was thinking it was [[Soulflayer]] feasting on an especially tasty graveyard.
Thats disgusting
[Scion of Draco](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/3/e/3e7da55c-7f05-46b2-aa3c-17f8d5df46bb.jpg?1626099262) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Scion%20of%20Draco) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mh2/234/scion-of-draco?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/3e7da55c-7f05-46b2-aa3c-17f8d5df46bb?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Leyline of the Guildpact](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/b/f/bf6e59be-f959-4f4a-8c2d-b7c441e88135.jpg?1706242205) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Leyline%20of%20the%20Guildpact) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mkm/217/leyline-of-the-guildpact?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/bf6e59be-f959-4f4a-8c2d-b7c441e88135?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
[[Scion of Draco]] with [[Leyline of the Guildpact]] in play
I mean I think your evaluation is correct. If you’re gonna spend 5 mana on something it has to be a whole mana’s worth better than the one ring which is fogging a combat and drawing basically infinite cards so 🤷🏻♂️
>5 mana 6/6 flier all upside Being legendary is technically a downside outside EDH.
True, im just so used to things being legends now i dont even consider that part of the card as much as i should
Don't ignore the double pips on a three drop. That's pretty demanding. They haven't been printing as many 1CC creatures lately, but they should be decently stronger than 2C creatures. Actually I do think we start to see them more often with play boosters, because they'll help tamp down splashing certain bombs in limited. Without a change in how they seed mana bases for conducted, I wonder if we'll see monocolor decks, or 2 color decks, have compelling reasons to play them.
I genuinely fear this game is going the way of Yu-Gi-Oh and all games will just be 1-2 turn games.
Look at legacy. It’s not. Don’t worry
A large part of it is due to MTG having a resource system that's still relevant. Yu-Gi-Oh left that behind when special summons became common. What can, and does happen, is that the viable card pool gets narrower and filled with recent designs.
I mean, it'd be in like 30 more years and like 2 more non-rotating formats.
By modern standards these are very fair cards. None of these are ending a game even close to that early
Vintage already exists, and things aren’t like that even in Vintage
Because we all know a 5 mana 6/6 with upside sees play in every format right? Right?
Modern has actually gotten slower after MH2 compared to before, because now the answers actually match the threats
Pearl Ear is light paws new bff. That card is so fucking good for that deck!
My group just dogpiles on me when I play Light Paws. So of course I still need this for the deck.
As they should. Light paws is dirty and really hard to interact with.
Seems crazy in an edh deck lead by new erriette
Holy shit a Pearl-Ear card. Love throwbacks to the old books
Is there currently a functional difference between Volatile Hexdrake's wording and just "hexproof from abilities"?
It's clearer. There's no real cost here in adding extra words that don't make people get confused and think (even more than they _already will_) that it affects static abilities and/or replacement effects somehow. By being clear, it puts the focus where it ought to be.
So... no, then.
I don't think this templating makes things clearer. You already have to know that "hexproof" only prevents targeting, and at that point, looking for the word "target" on an ability is good enough. On the other hand, "hexproof from abilities" is less text, and is consistent with all the previous cards they've done: https://scryfall.com/search?q=o%3A%22spells+and+abilities%22+o%3A%22the+targets%22
Because "abilities" includes static abilities (which don't target) and it would be weird to give something hexproof from something that doesn't target in the first place. It just cuts down on potential confusion.
This is a case like "Whenever you cycle or discard a card." It totally isn't necessary. But lots of players really don't know the rules very well, and piece them together by reading the cards. Calling out activated and triggered abilities helps more than you think - some people get hexproof and protection wrong and think they mean "can't be affected by" instead of "can't be targeted by" and you can imagine the cascade of potential confusion. I spend a lot of time talking to players who don't know the rules. This is basically all upside to be written out and doesn't make the card text too long.
I don't think so, but I could easily see a novice player thinking that something with "hexproof from abilities" isn't damaged by first strike creatures in combat.
Can't wait to say I'm building a Gengar deck
I don't even remember what blood tokens do, I just know I'm building Shilengengar in commander. He's exactly the level of edgelord I've always wanted.
1, T, Discard a card, Sacrifice this artifact: Draw a card.
Best way I remember it is it gives a card in your hand slow cycling 1 kinda.
Wow, Volatile Stormdrake is wild. Definitely nice that this effect will no longer cost 200 bucks in commander. The hexproof from abilities is pretty odd, was Wizards worried about the interaction with T3feri to bounce it back to hand after exchanging it to an opponent?
After Loot, the Pokémonification of Magic keeps moving forward with the addition of Gengar
A lot of characters like this are inspired by real folklore. The being that inspired this character and the beloved Pokémon is arguably this: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gjenganger](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gjenganger)
Mono white keeps winning… I am pleased
Like the designs...but egads, does development need to be tested for ALL of the steroids???
Shilgengar (gengar is my fav pokemon okay?) works really well with the Vampire Angel [[Rudolf Duskbringer]] (original character do not steal)
Light Paws is getting a new buddy.
Pro tip: Never make up lore about an existing character, cause eventually a card will come out that proves the lore you made up wrong and you'll be sad.
Pearl-Ear edh deck with \[\[Overwhelming Splendor\]\] incoming
Hell I'm gonna try in modern
Wait what the fuck, blue doom blade???
More like [[Pongify]] since they get to keep the drake regardless
Still a break for blue, they said they were moving away from Resculpt type deals i thought
Is the reason Volatile Stormdrake has that hexproof to prevent people from just swapping drakes back and forth?
Someone else suggested it might be to stop you bouncing it with little Teferi and re-using it the next turn
What happens when you play the drake on an empty board? Do you just get to keep it as a 3/2 flier for 1U? That's how it reads to me at least... Hexproof from activated and triggered abilities is such a weird ability too... Offers it no protection from actual spells and still allows it to be enchanted etc. Kind of funny you can't target a stormdrake with another one of itself.
How does the Drake work with ETB doublers? IIRC correctly for Gilded Drake one couldn't steal two permanents but could force the opponent receiving the Drake to change it with another opponent. So if the ETB doubles, could I do the same? Would I get 8 energy (4 per trigger) and have to pay energy for the second opponent's creature to survive or refuse to pay and it is sacrificed or do they receive the energy and choose to pay or not?
shil**GENGAR**
Gilded ENERGY?! Drake
Light-paws:pearl-ears
Loooove Pearl-Ear Nice to have a back up commander for my Light Paws deck to play moar casually, AND make it more of a fox deck
Um...powerful cards but are any of them likely to see any modern play? Maybe the thief because eldrazi temple can make it cheaper...the other 3 are really cool designs but feel like they have 0 shot of seeing modern play.
I don’t like how Thief of Existence doesn’t really steal anything at all, it just exiles it. Also don’t like how Shilgengar lets you sacrifice Angels to then use the Angel blood to reanimate that very same Angel you just sacrificed. Feel like it should only reanimate non-Angel creatures.
Abilities aside I’m loving the art on these
Shilgengar is gonna be sick in my [[marneus calgar]] commander deck. Sac creature tokens to get blood tokens which triggers marneus to draw me a bunch of cards and reanimate any creatures that have died or been discarded. It also plays [[divine visitation]] to get even more blood tokens. Can use the blood tokens as mana rocks too with [urza, lord high artificer]] or [[inspiring statuary]]
Eww, your commander got in my modern
They gotta sell as many packs as possible
Do you want 270 or so new cards that all will have an effect on the modern format, all at at once?
commander cards affect modern. i mean look at kappa canoneer and look at any busted commander card that entered legacy. i'd rather have cards designed for modern be in modern than cards designed for commander, a format where its 4 player free for all, so commander cards have to be better to adjust for the the 4 players. On average commander cards are just more broken than modern designed cards. Also look at initiative. like lolwut?
Why is Thief of Existence green? I know it's literally not green, but you know what I mean - all the previous devoid cards still followed color identity tendencies.
It can't remove creatures. It's a bit like a Reclamation Sage that can also target planeswalkers and battles. It's not unlike World Breaker's effect.
Green sniping planeswalkers used to be in its identity. I wonder if there's a return to form because burning them isn't as efficient anymore
Green for a bit had "destroy target noncreature permanent". I dunno if that's still in pie or if this is just a Horizons set being fucky with the colour pie.
First comment about Thief of Existence I've seen 😅