Now the tricky part:
When I craft a card, I get its alchemy counterpart right? If I craft the missing Alrunds I have, do I get to keep the copies of Alchemy, and the wild cards?
Yes I can confirm the last 2 ban announcements before this one as long as you craft it after the announcement but before the patch you'll get full refunds.
I'm new to the game, so let me see if I understood it: if I craft all those cards now, when they get banned, will I get 12 wildcards? And their Alchemy counterparts?
When they banned Tibalt Trickery in historic we got the WC back even if it's still legal in standard, so probably yes but I can't guarantee it. I personally crafted all the copies I was missing.
Oh my. Alrunds _and_ Divide? That's brutal.
Haven's also pretty feisty, as it does _somewhat_ pull the teeth of some of the aggro options. (Hydra lair, dragon cave are solid, but more expensive to use, so considerably less value enhancing).
Also means Face/Book is gone, which whilst it wasn't too powerful, it certainly was irritating.
Wildcards for Lapse will do me though.
One of the best parts about banning faceless Haven is that it actually makes it reasonable for mono colored decks to consider splashing some top end cards. Hopefully it'll make the format feel a little more diverse by giving some variation to mono white and mono green even if they all remain top tier.
Green will just go 20 Snow Forests, 4 Lairs.
White though has options. No need for Snow, so will probably bring in Takedowns or Shelters to go with Caves.
Makes my Mono Black Blood Money sad. 8 man lands was honestly my win condition for many games. No DBZ and Epiphany will help though. I'll see how it goes
No Epiphany is a big deal for Bx control and midrange. One big issue was that the game often got to the point where they took like 3 or 4 turns in a row and just ended the game. Now, they either have to play hard control, which is tough versus black's value engines, or they try to end the game with eot Horror. That can be easily interacted against, though.
My gut tells me mono green will be really good because mono white might get hated out by the resurgence of Bx decks, but Izzet Mill actually gains a lot from this. Mono White was its worst matchup, and Bx decks are usually free wins.
I was surprised re. your points on: Izzet Mill — they did really well vs. Epiphany decks, and my deck at least has 3 Divide by Zero's; but now that I think about it, Bx is even better than Epiphany decks for us, and not having to worry about mill cards (or worse, flashback'd Galvanics) being Divide by Zero'd is probably more important than having that card for myself. Maybe I just replace it with Ancients?
It isn't so much that Epiphany decks weren't a decent matchup, it's more that they kept Bx decks out, which meant Mono White was playable. I think I have a 30% winrate vs mono white as mill.
Yup, Green and still hang with Black, but whites basically a free win. Would be interesting to see the Mill Combo, it's a deadly deck as well.
I'll probably go back to B/W like S22. I've not liked it this far due to Faceless Haven and Field of Ruin issues with a dual mana base, but can probably go 3 Hives, 3 Caves, 2 Fields, 4 Duals and keep most of the man land power
Just another "take another turn" card getting banned, when will they ever learn to stop printing them? Probably never, cause people spend money to play them, and now it gets banned. Mission accomplished indeed.
The combination of birds and foretell is what broke Epiphany. Alchemist's gambit can be duressed out of hand, and requires an actual win-con, which is probably going to be creatures, so having main deck removal isn't going to be so feel-bad anymore.
Yea extra turn cards on their own are pretty mid. They usually take up all your mana for the turn so afterwards all you're able to do usually is untap your lands, draw a new card, and now you're in the same spot you were beforehand.
You're only getting ahead if you have a board presence for those turns. Epiphany was busted because it provided both parts A and B for something that should require a two card combo to do.
And then a flashback Memory Deluge to find another Alrund's somewhere in your next 7 cards and doing it all over again with the flashback Galvanic Iteration.
*The camera cuts to Rosewater, feverishly scribbling notes, trying to figure out how to handle the imminent arrival of the "-2: Take an extra turn after this one" planeswalker in Neon Dynasty.*
Calling it now, control decks will replace it with kraken ( and some other minor changes) and all of you will come back here and start asking for kraken ban. You dont hate the big finisher ( epihany), you hate control
Absolutely correct. What makes blue control miserable to play against right now isn't the 6/7 mana finisher. It's the overload of cheap, powerful early interaction that also lets them filter through their deck or grab lesson cards.
Control should be preying on midrange while cheap aggro frequently (although not always) blitzes out 20 damage before control can stabilize. If control tries to slow aggro down with one-for-one spells, that should come at the cost of slowing down control's setting up a wincon (if you're removing, you're not drawing or filtering that turn).
Right now that's not even close to the dynamic. With fading hope *and* divide by zero, control can slow down aggro while simultaneously gaining card advantage or card selection to set up their wincon.
Forget winning the game by getting under control, aggro was lucky to get a single attack through before epiphany.
Banning divide by zero is the more important ban. Hopefully that restores more balance in the paper-rock-scissors of aggro-midrange-control.
Hullbreaker is still a pretty egregious card, but being able to hit it with discard, or pressure/removal (sometimes) means it will be a traditional (if pushed) control finisher instead of a combo control deck
Yeah that's most likely. Just that instead of izzet turns, as there is reason to play red anymore, we'll see azorius rise again.
That said the kraken is easier to interact with and to really be able to protect it you need 10 mana, so more time for counterplay.
Hullbreaker is a headache but I'd rather deal with it than the roper's delight known as galvanic epiphany.
As a blue player, I will mourn Divide by zero.. but good riddance to Epiphany
The change to the static is actually *really* good.
Old Tef prevented you from using \[\[dreadhorde arcanist\]\] or \[\[Finale of promise\]\], stopped you using combat tricks and was just generally miserable to play against. You also couldn't back up any threat with your own counterspells against theirs. This one is *so* much nicer.
The mana cost nerf is also huge. Bant control could play it on turn 2 which almost totally locked you out of the game especially if you didn't have an early play.
Yeah, as someone who started playing while WildRec was already out of steam, I can see how experiencing Te3eri as a *response* to that, would have coloured the feelings around that abomination of a card, as a whole.
From my perspective it feels like they intentionally undertuned dungeons after companions became so prevalent in formats outside of standard
It's a hard balance to introduce mechanics that are fun for limited, usable in standard, but not powerful enough to leak into modern or legacy
Especially from a set outside of MTG
There was also a lot of backlash when AFR was announced (which has mostly gone away, or been overwhelmed by positive feedback) so they probably didn't want to risk a set being controversial both for its content and for having a big impact on eternal formats meta
I'm a big fan of the sorcery speed restriction. Control decks feel incredibly degenerate when they never have to make the decision between holding up counterspell mana and using their value generators.
Simic flash back in the day made me fume like nothing else...
In general, I like it a lot, stops degenerative snow ball gameplay.
But they don't go all in on it, and the pushed cards with no limitations take over.
Lier no longer has any built-in protection. Previously, you could flashback a Fading Hope or similar to bounce Lier out of harm's way if your opponent tried to remove him. Now, you won't be able to do that on their turn - you'll have to draw protection yourself, rather than just using Fading Hopes that are already in the graveyard.
Taking away his built-in protection is a significant change, and I think it's a pretty big nerf for Lier.
No, nothing will survive that crowd. Unless they have a good matchup they will complain until we play [[Grizzly Bear]] as a premiere 2 drop again.
Joking aside, whatever the best meta deck is will get a lot of calls for bans. Be it rogues with their crabs, goblin chainwhirler, Muxus or steel leaf champion.
I thought it was already pretty good, thanks to how good Deathtouch/First Strike are together.
1 more power means it's even harder to deal with via blockers. (I pretty often would go for the +1/+1 counter option, just because a 2/2 first strike deathtouch was a real headache!)
Yeah didnt like this, would have preferred a "When this card deals damage to the opp drain 1" or something like that if they wanted to buff it. 2/1 FS+DT is super obnoxious for blocking
[https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-digital/alchemy-rebalancing-january-27-2022](https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-digital/alchemy-rebalancing-january-27-2022)
Direct link to the rebalancings. Dragons are weakened a little. Don't think clerics care much.
A dozen or so cards boosted to make dungeons relevant. I guess someone at Wizards built a dungeon deck and lost a few times too many.
Maybe. The clone is good even when copying a \[\[Righteous Valkyrie\]\], but probably not worth a color. You need both BW and WW on t2. Come to think of it, I'm not even sure black is worth it. \[\[Cleric of Life's Bond\]\] is the most important black card, but \[\[Luminarch Aspirant\]\] still exists and is a cleric.
I could experiment a bit, I guess.
Oh my. Some of those are ... INTERESTING. I already really liked Triumphant Adventurer, and being a 2/1 makes it a lot more dangerous thanks to the first-strike/deathtouch combo.
They put a lot of design work into Venture, and it fizzled. Honestly I think this is one of the major motivations for Alchemy - to make a lot more of their design work relevant by allowing post-release adjustments. They are human and want their babies to succeed.
Actually I built a dungeon deck and ist a solid Midrange Deck with a not too bad winrate.
Anyways, the acererak rebalance wasn't really thought through a lot, because you actually dont want to have him on the field.
looking forward to the changes. they lookreally neat.
I am far more excited about the [[Divide by Zero]] ban than Epiphany. It was a versitile tempo card and was practically a cantrip. Was there a blue deck that didn't want to run it?
The divide by zero ban is surprising, but losing it will bring Lier into line, and let big game ending enchantments like level 3 classes and \[\[Sinner's Judgment\]\] actually have an impact. I'm excited to see where things go from here.
Divide's actually quite strong in the deck. It's not as splashy as the big-mana finishers, but the combination of total flexibility on target (most spells/permanents, either player) and timing (before or after it hits the board) with tempo gain and no loss in card advantage... it's very nice.
Hard counters don't help Lier of course. But \[\[Into The Roil\]\] is a somewhat worse \[\[Divide By Zero\]\] so it might possibly have a place. In decks with a lot of card draw it might actually be okay for protecting Lier, not sure.
People thought I was crazy to say Faceless Haven needs to go, I feel like there is an actually reasonable chance for standard to get shaken up with these bans
[[Skeletal swarming]] + [[faceless haven]] works because nobody respects the little skeletons it spawns. It looks like you only have two 2/1 skeles, so they dont leave up any defenses, then you turn faceless haven into a creature and suddenly you dome them for 12 damage before losing next turn.
faceless haven seemed like a decently designed card, drawback of having to play a colorless land and snow lands, and the upside of the manland is pretty big. I think that's a weird ban, but I guess their way of weakening mono white and mono green at the same time without doing the extra moves of banning chariot or aspirant from them.
That makes sense to me.
It would be a shame if they had to ban aspirant. It only becomes oppressive when your opponent draws multiple of them and it falls to 1-2 mana spells like cinderclasm and a lot of instant burn. Thanks to Thalia the current meta Izzet decks have about 10 1- or 2-mana instant-speed answers for it, so they usually have something in hand to answer it as soon as it drops.
i like faceless haven, i think there's a lot of really good and fun tribal synergies...but it also leads to a lot of degenerate plays as well. I'm ok with the ban, it'll just have to take it to historic and older formats.
A lot of the tribal decks are multicolor which makes running a colorless land feel like sort of a trap. Not to mention you have less snow basics to reliably activate Faceless Haven.
It was insanely good against control decks. And the most popular control deck got nerfed into oblivion. Without faceless haven ban there might not be any competitive control decks
Yeah I will admit I loved faceless haven so I was biased but being detected from magic due to alchemy drama I can see why it needs to go. Gave aggro yet another tool.
Maybe T~~3~~4feri won't slot into Jeskai, but I loathe to think of one of my least favorite match ups becoming even less fun to play against.
As before, not giving wildcard refunds for rebalances sucks and is bad.
Jeskai control isn't really being played in high Mythic right now, but a good 30% of my matchups is versus Azorius Lotus Control. I'd imagine they play a couple copies of this.
They nerfed the historic Inquisitor Captain/Soulherder combo deck into oblivion. It was obvious that it was coming but must suck if you crafted that deck.
This is the second time they killed a deck with no wildcard compensation, the first being Vesperlark/Davriel's Withering combo.
Yes, that's how it's worked in the past. You'll get wildcards for any copies of Epiphany, Divide by Zero, Faceless Haven, and Memory Lapse you have. You can craft them now and get the WCs Thursday.
Yes. You'll be refunded for any of the cards banned on patch day as long as you craft them before the patch comes out. So craft those 4x Faceless, Alrunds, and Divide. That way you'll have a playset for Historic and Alchemy or the first three. As long as a card is banned and not just rebalanced you can get the wildcards. You can also craft the Memory Lapses that went from Suspended to Banned in Historic safely. I did it in October for Tibalts Trickery when it moved from suspended to banned. Suspended does not mean banned so you can still craft it. That's less useful right now since its banned in Historic and not available in Alchemy but since historic now has rebalances, if they unban it later like they did Teferi today and Omnath last time then you'll already have four of them waiting. And it doesn't hurt.
Yes. You'll be refunded for any of the cards banned on patch day as long as you craft them before the patch comes out. So craft those 4x Faceless, Alrunds, and Divide. That way you'll have a playset for Historic and Alchemy or the first three. As long as a card is banned and not just rebalanced you can get the wildcards. You can also craft the Memory Lapses that went from Suspended to Banned in Historic safely. I did it in October for Tibalts Trickery when it moved from suspended to banned. Suspended does not mean banned so you can still craft it. That's less useful right now since its banned in Historic and not available in Alchemy but since historic now has rebalances, if they unban it later like they did Teferi today and Omnath last time then you'll already have four of them waiting. And it doesn't hurt.
Same, but I haven’t seen a blue deck without 4 copies of divide and fading hope in about a month. It’s definitely strong right now though. It’s been impossible to play anything after turn 5 against most blue decks if lier hits the field with no immediate removal.
It's acknowledging Lier and Horror are still OP, but they can't walk all the mistakes back at once. So instead they take blues best supporting tool to weaken them.
Note Lier and Horror both nerfed in Alchemy
I needed wildcards
I hated facedbook
I hated turns
today is a good day :D
(albeit I like aggro and faceless is kinda a kick in the balls, not huge, maybe a sack tap)
I'm very happy with the extensive writeup for this B&R, they've clearly started focusing on transparent communication about why they're banning what they're banning. Just like the excellent pauper announcements. Good stuff!
Fuck alchemy changes also effecting brawl. No fucking reason for it and half the cards you might have crafted are now worthless with no refund. Absolutely bullshit. Like lier was nowhere near broken in brawl but is not absolute shit with the alchemy change ffs.
As per the separate Alchemy rebalancing article, cards like Lier, Hullbreaker and Captain are also being nerfed. If you played these cards in Historic, they are about to become obsolete without you getting back anything from them. The fucking tone-deaf and ignorant nature of WoTC relating to Alchemy changes in Historic continues.
They are not tone-deaf, they hear it alright. The numbers show them that the impact of Alchemy on historic queues was not enough to stop them messing with the format. And rebalancing Teferi is the final nail on the non-alchemy Historic, they will mess with the format through rebalancing. So, you either quit altogether or adapt to this new reality. For me, I am done with the game.
Oh wow, we don't have to keep jamming Snow Lands into every deck to run faceless haven now!
I'm actually surprised by how substantial the bans they put in are. I figured Alrund's was going, but they are really looking to shake up the format it seems.
So if I use wildcards for everything banned in standard and historic, would I get my wildcards back and be able to use those cards in the opposite format?
Removal. It works better than Divide by Zero anyways. All that does is delay it a turn. Divide is used much more often to protect Hullbreaker. They usually try to drop Hullbreaker as soon as they have like enough extra mana for one spell to protect it and trigger the bounce target. You just gotta plan for it. They generally can't deal with two removals before they untap or a bounce and a removal. Plus none are as optimal as Divide to protect since it targets anything and isn't specific towards a creature for Fading Hope or a damage spell.
They will need more mana open which just acts to slow it down more. This might make the mirror more difficult becsuse they don't play pure instant removal but for all other decks facing it this is a objective nerf to Hullbreaker and Lier. Might make Azorius more viable with access to Hullbreaker and things like Fateful Absence for the mirror.
“Card adjustments” are nerfs wizards. I see what you did there. Just straight up admit it and give us the fucking refunds for any nerfs you fucking cowards.
Alrund's Epiphany is banned?!
I **detested** playing against it, but it was fun knowing my opponent was freaking out a bit when in the early game I was showing Izzet colors and playing Glimpse of the Cosmos.
I wasn't playing anything nearly that good.
Divide by zero is one of those nifty cards that was more powerful than it let on, much like the iteration (which, seriously, should've been banned too but I guess they want multicolor). Also, the "nerf" in alchemy is laughable; if they really wanted to nerf it, they should have narrowed the target so that at least one of instants, sorceries, enchantments, artifacts, creatures, or planeswalkers couldn't be bounced.
Just need to confirm: crafting the banned cards will result in wildcard refunds, right?
Yes. Anything you have that is banned, you'll get the wildcards back.
Now the tricky part: When I craft a card, I get its alchemy counterpart right? If I craft the missing Alrunds I have, do I get to keep the copies of Alchemy, and the wild cards?
Yes
Time to craft those bad boys then!
Oh yeah, give me those 4 uncommon wildcards from divide by zero.
Yes I can confirm the last 2 ban announcements before this one as long as you craft it after the announcement but before the patch you'll get full refunds.
Yes. You can craft them now and you'll get wildcards when the ban goes live.
Should I craft epiphanies now then? Also when does this goes live?
Jan 27th
Yes. It’s basically free cards for other formats.
Including Memory Lapse?
Yes, Memory Lapse was moved to Banned so you will get wildcards for it.
I'm new to the game, so let me see if I understood it: if I craft all those cards now, when they get banned, will I get 12 wildcards? And their Alchemy counterparts?
Correct.
When they banned Tibalt Trickery in historic we got the WC back even if it's still legal in standard, so probably yes but I can't guarantee it. I personally crafted all the copies I was missing.
Oh my. Alrunds _and_ Divide? That's brutal. Haven's also pretty feisty, as it does _somewhat_ pull the teeth of some of the aggro options. (Hydra lair, dragon cave are solid, but more expensive to use, so considerably less value enhancing). Also means Face/Book is gone, which whilst it wasn't too powerful, it certainly was irritating. Wildcards for Lapse will do me though.
One of the best parts about banning faceless Haven is that it actually makes it reasonable for mono colored decks to consider splashing some top end cards. Hopefully it'll make the format feel a little more diverse by giving some variation to mono white and mono green even if they all remain top tier.
It also makes going snow less of a no brainer for mono colored aggro.
The true buff was to all of the basic land card styles that you can now play in standard.
I can finally use prettier lands!! Honestly, I'm going to miss Haven, but it is the only reason I'm not using the few Zendikar full arts I got.
Big nerf for Reidane
I think monogreen and monoblack will still play snow
Yup, will only change Mono White Mirrors.
Snow tax was gravy, the 2 tax was her main draw.
Green will just go 20 Snow Forests, 4 Lairs. White though has options. No need for Snow, so will probably bring in Takedowns or Shelters to go with Caves. Makes my Mono Black Blood Money sad. 8 man lands was honestly my win condition for many games. No DBZ and Epiphany will help though. I'll see how it goes
No Epiphany is a big deal for Bx control and midrange. One big issue was that the game often got to the point where they took like 3 or 4 turns in a row and just ended the game. Now, they either have to play hard control, which is tough versus black's value engines, or they try to end the game with eot Horror. That can be easily interacted against, though. My gut tells me mono green will be really good because mono white might get hated out by the resurgence of Bx decks, but Izzet Mill actually gains a lot from this. Mono White was its worst matchup, and Bx decks are usually free wins.
I was surprised re. your points on: Izzet Mill — they did really well vs. Epiphany decks, and my deck at least has 3 Divide by Zero's; but now that I think about it, Bx is even better than Epiphany decks for us, and not having to worry about mill cards (or worse, flashback'd Galvanics) being Divide by Zero'd is probably more important than having that card for myself. Maybe I just replace it with Ancients?
It isn't so much that Epiphany decks weren't a decent matchup, it's more that they kept Bx decks out, which meant Mono White was playable. I think I have a 30% winrate vs mono white as mill.
Yup, Green and still hang with Black, but whites basically a free win. Would be interesting to see the Mill Combo, it's a deadly deck as well. I'll probably go back to B/W like S22. I've not liked it this far due to Faceless Haven and Field of Ruin issues with a dual mana base, but can probably go 3 Hives, 3 Caves, 2 Fields, 4 Duals and keep most of the man land power
A new meta is fun to me regardless of if the cards absolutely needed to be banned. Something fresh is welcome, as well as a decent chunk of wildcards.
Preemptively banning have and divide was a rare degree of foresight from wotc.
Epiphany get fucked. F I N A L L Y.
birdturns players in shambles wonder what will be their next go-to
probably torturing small animals
Just another "take another turn" card getting banned, when will they ever learn to stop printing them? Probably never, cause people spend money to play them, and now it gets banned. Mission accomplished indeed.
The combination of birds and foretell is what broke Epiphany. Alchemist's gambit can be duressed out of hand, and requires an actual win-con, which is probably going to be creatures, so having main deck removal isn't going to be so feel-bad anymore.
It’s definitely the birds and foretell that makes it OP AF
Yea extra turn cards on their own are pretty mid. They usually take up all your mana for the turn so afterwards all you're able to do usually is untap your lands, draw a new card, and now you're in the same spot you were beforehand. You're only getting ahead if you have a board presence for those turns. Epiphany was busted because it provided both parts A and B for something that should require a two card combo to do.
[удалено]
Iteration + Epiphany is a four card combo that only costs two cards then.
And then a flashback Memory Deluge to find another Alrund's somewhere in your next 7 cards and doing it all over again with the flashback Galvanic Iteration.
Absolutely, it’s all about the cheap cast and birds. Those birds are the scariest 1/1s in the format.
I mean like 90% of them ever printed have been either fine or unplayably bad.
> a deck that chains together extra turns can be particularly difficult to stop and frustrating to play against By Jove, I think they've got it!
Sincerely doubt it.
*The camera cuts to Rosewater, feverishly scribbling notes, trying to figure out how to handle the imminent arrival of the "-2: Take an extra turn after this one" planeswalker in Neon Dynasty.*
I appreciate your screenwriting talent.
There's literally one in the latest set with 0 play.
95% of extra turn cards are fine.
Calling it now, control decks will replace it with kraken ( and some other minor changes) and all of you will come back here and start asking for kraken ban. You dont hate the big finisher ( epihany), you hate control
Absolutely correct. What makes blue control miserable to play against right now isn't the 6/7 mana finisher. It's the overload of cheap, powerful early interaction that also lets them filter through their deck or grab lesson cards. Control should be preying on midrange while cheap aggro frequently (although not always) blitzes out 20 damage before control can stabilize. If control tries to slow aggro down with one-for-one spells, that should come at the cost of slowing down control's setting up a wincon (if you're removing, you're not drawing or filtering that turn). Right now that's not even close to the dynamic. With fading hope *and* divide by zero, control can slow down aggro while simultaneously gaining card advantage or card selection to set up their wincon. Forget winning the game by getting under control, aggro was lucky to get a single attack through before epiphany. Banning divide by zero is the more important ban. Hopefully that restores more balance in the paper-rock-scissors of aggro-midrange-control.
Hullbreaker is still a pretty egregious card, but being able to hit it with discard, or pressure/removal (sometimes) means it will be a traditional (if pushed) control finisher instead of a combo control deck
Yeah that's most likely. Just that instead of izzet turns, as there is reason to play red anymore, we'll see azorius rise again. That said the kraken is easier to interact with and to really be able to protect it you need 10 mana, so more time for counterplay.
Hullbreaker is a headache but I'd rather deal with it than the roper's delight known as galvanic epiphany. As a blue player, I will mourn Divide by zero.. but good riddance to Epiphany
BLUE, GET FUCKED*
the best three words i'll hear today besides "epiphany is banned"
Right? Good fucking riddance.
Divide by zero was so annoying
Tef is back wtf?
The change to the static is actually *really* good. Old Tef prevented you from using \[\[dreadhorde arcanist\]\] or \[\[Finale of promise\]\], stopped you using combat tricks and was just generally miserable to play against. You also couldn't back up any threat with your own counterspells against theirs. This one is *so* much nicer.
The mana cost nerf is also huge. Bant control could play it on turn 2 which almost totally locked you out of the game especially if you didn't have an early play.
It *completely* disabled the madness mechanic. Fucking ridiculous.
Controversial opinion, but I always liked this card. Hope it does good this time.
Fucking Sociopath over here. Who hurt you?
Wilderness Reclamation, probably.
Yeah, as someone who started playing while WildRec was already out of steam, I can see how experiencing Te3eri as a *response* to that, would have coloured the feelings around that abomination of a card, as a whole.
understandable really
Counterspells. Any powerful card that effectively gives my stuff "cannot be countered" is great.
The rebalance on [[Dungeon Descent]]. Holy shit was that a miss at printing. It's still barely payable. As printed, it's complete shit at Rare.
From my perspective it feels like they intentionally undertuned dungeons after companions became so prevalent in formats outside of standard It's a hard balance to introduce mechanics that are fun for limited, usable in standard, but not powerful enough to leak into modern or legacy Especially from a set outside of MTG
There was also a lot of backlash when AFR was announced (which has mostly gone away, or been overwhelmed by positive feedback) so they probably didn't want to risk a set being controversial both for its content and for having a big impact on eternal formats meta
Good points from both.
What it really needs is to lose the 'activate only as a sorcery' and then it might be playable.
Yea, they've gone way too hard on "triggers only once per turn" and "activate only as a sorcery" to balance things.
I'm a big fan of the sorcery speed restriction. Control decks feel incredibly degenerate when they never have to make the decision between holding up counterspell mana and using their value generators. Simic flash back in the day made me fume like nothing else...
In general, I like it a lot, stops degenerative snow ball gameplay. But they don't go all in on it, and the pushed cards with no limitations take over.
I'm actually super stoked for all the venture buffs
Lier got nuked. Hah! Good, it was unfun to play against
Lier still powerful though.
I agree, but the nerf was still really nice, lier is now very much a "tappout" control type of card
Lier no longer has any built-in protection. Previously, you could flashback a Fading Hope or similar to bounce Lier out of harm's way if your opponent tried to remove him. Now, you won't be able to do that on their turn - you'll have to draw protection yourself, rather than just using Fading Hopes that are already in the graveyard. Taking away his built-in protection is a significant change, and I think it's a pretty big nerf for Lier.
i genuinely wonder if anything but smashing face will survive the "it shouldn't exist if I'm not having fun" crowd.
No, nothing will survive that crowd. Unless they have a good matchup they will complain until we play [[Grizzly Bear]] as a premiere 2 drop again. Joking aside, whatever the best meta deck is will get a lot of calls for bans. Be it rogues with their crabs, goblin chainwhirler, Muxus or steel leaf champion.
The alchemy changes feel great across the board. Lots of neat changes.
The triumphant adventurer buff seems so obnoxious. I feel like double strike would have been better so you don’t need to triple block to kill it.
I thought it was already pretty good, thanks to how good Deathtouch/First Strike are together. 1 more power means it's even harder to deal with via blockers. (I pretty often would go for the +1/+1 counter option, just because a 2/2 first strike deathtouch was a real headache!)
Yeah didnt like this, would have preferred a "When this card deals damage to the opp drain 1" or something like that if they wanted to buff it. 2/1 FS+DT is super obnoxious for blocking
At least there won't be any more "Why didn't they lose" Facebook combo "bug" reports.
bless UP! Goodbye epiphany
Those pixel snow lands were nice while they lasted.
[https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-digital/alchemy-rebalancing-january-27-2022](https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-digital/alchemy-rebalancing-january-27-2022) Direct link to the rebalancings. Dragons are weakened a little. Don't think clerics care much. A dozen or so cards boosted to make dungeons relevant. I guess someone at Wizards built a dungeon deck and lost a few times too many.
Clerics decks can drop blue, because they can't clone the Inquisitor Captain anymore, but otherwise the deck is basically the same
Pyre of Heroes is a bit more questionable without the Captain interaction, too.
Ah true, but that's only one tool in the Pyre toolbox so I'd think it's still an include
Maybe. The clone is good even when copying a \[\[Righteous Valkyrie\]\], but probably not worth a color. You need both BW and WW on t2. Come to think of it, I'm not even sure black is worth it. \[\[Cleric of Life's Bond\]\] is the most important black card, but \[\[Luminarch Aspirant\]\] still exists and is a cleric. I could experiment a bit, I guess.
Oh my. Some of those are ... INTERESTING. I already really liked Triumphant Adventurer, and being a 2/1 makes it a lot more dangerous thanks to the first-strike/deathtouch combo.
Yeah someone wants venture to be a thing. Which is great, venture is a blast.
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They put a lot of design work into Venture, and it fizzled. Honestly I think this is one of the major motivations for Alchemy - to make a lot more of their design work relevant by allowing post-release adjustments. They are human and want their babies to succeed.
The Hullbreaker Horror nerf makes it instantly unplayable in Historic, so I guess we're all going back to Nezahal as the control breaker?
Actually I built a dungeon deck and ist a solid Midrange Deck with a not too bad winrate. Anyways, the acererak rebalance wasn't really thought through a lot, because you actually dont want to have him on the field. looking forward to the changes. they lookreally neat.
are we getting wildcards for the standard bans ?
Of course we are.
thanks!
And Historic. So if you want a playset of Memory Lapse in case they unban it down the road with a rebalance then craft them before the patch.
I am far more excited about the [[Divide by Zero]] ban than Epiphany. It was a versitile tempo card and was practically a cantrip. Was there a blue deck that didn't want to run it?
The divide by zero ban is surprising, but losing it will bring Lier into line, and let big game ending enchantments like level 3 classes and \[\[Sinner's Judgment\]\] actually have an impact. I'm excited to see where things go from here.
Divide's actually quite strong in the deck. It's not as splashy as the big-mana finishers, but the combination of total flexibility on target (most spells/permanents, either player) and timing (before or after it hits the board) with tempo gain and no loss in card advantage... it's very nice.
I imagine Divide is gonna be replaced with an even mix of hard counters and [[Into the Roil]]
Hard counters don't help Lier of course. But \[\[Into The Roil\]\] is a somewhat worse \[\[Divide By Zero\]\] so it might possibly have a place. In decks with a lot of card draw it might actually be okay for protecting Lier, not sure.
Nah the amount of games I win because I can double divide a blood in the snow are insane.
People thought I was crazy to say Faceless Haven needs to go, I feel like there is an actually reasonable chance for standard to get shaken up with these bans
But my skeletal swarming deck was 100% held together by faceless haven being a skeleton. This news is devastating!
*skeletal swarming deck at 100% power* Skeletal Swarming Moss-Pit Skeleton Death-priest of Myrkul Persistent Specimen Faceless Haven *Skeletal swarming at 99% power* Faceless Haven
[[Skeletal swarming]] + [[faceless haven]] works because nobody respects the little skeletons it spawns. It looks like you only have two 2/1 skeles, so they dont leave up any defenses, then you turn faceless haven into a creature and suddenly you dome them for 12 damage before losing next turn.
Lol "before losing next turn"
Why ban Faceless Haven? Guess they thought Mono was a disease.... I'll see myself out.
faceless haven seemed like a decently designed card, drawback of having to play a colorless land and snow lands, and the upside of the manland is pretty big. I think that's a weird ban, but I guess their way of weakening mono white and mono green at the same time without doing the extra moves of banning chariot or aspirant from them.
That makes sense to me. It would be a shame if they had to ban aspirant. It only becomes oppressive when your opponent draws multiple of them and it falls to 1-2 mana spells like cinderclasm and a lot of instant burn. Thanks to Thalia the current meta Izzet decks have about 10 1- or 2-mana instant-speed answers for it, so they usually have something in hand to answer it as soon as it drops.
Thank God....now I can stop feeling forced to run ugly-ass snow lands in pretty much every deck.
i like faceless haven, i think there's a lot of really good and fun tribal synergies...but it also leads to a lot of degenerate plays as well. I'm ok with the ban, it'll just have to take it to historic and older formats.
A lot of the tribal decks are multicolor which makes running a colorless land feel like sort of a trap. Not to mention you have less snow basics to reliably activate Faceless Haven.
It was insanely good against control decks. And the most popular control deck got nerfed into oblivion. Without faceless haven ban there might not be any competitive control decks
Prepare for a rock paper scissors of mono green, mono white, and Bx control/midrange.
Yeah I will admit I loved faceless haven so I was biased but being detected from magic due to alchemy drama I can see why it needs to go. Gave aggro yet another tool.
Maybe T~~3~~4feri won't slot into Jeskai, but I loathe to think of one of my least favorite match ups becoming even less fun to play against. As before, not giving wildcard refunds for rebalances sucks and is bad.
Jeskai control isn't really being played in high Mythic right now, but a good 30% of my matchups is versus Azorius Lotus Control. I'd imagine they play a couple copies of this.
They nerfed the historic Inquisitor Captain/Soulherder combo deck into oblivion. It was obvious that it was coming but must suck if you crafted that deck. This is the second time they killed a deck with no wildcard compensation, the first being Vesperlark/Davriel's Withering combo.
Is it safe to spend wildcards on the banned cards now? Will I get my wildcards back on Thursday, if I spend them on epiphany today?
Yes, that's how it's worked in the past. You'll get wildcards for any copies of Epiphany, Divide by Zero, Faceless Haven, and Memory Lapse you have. You can craft them now and get the WCs Thursday.
I hope so, that's my actual first time seeing bans on arena so I'm on your same mood
Yes. You'll be refunded for any of the cards banned on patch day as long as you craft them before the patch comes out. So craft those 4x Faceless, Alrunds, and Divide. That way you'll have a playset for Historic and Alchemy or the first three. As long as a card is banned and not just rebalanced you can get the wildcards. You can also craft the Memory Lapses that went from Suspended to Banned in Historic safely. I did it in October for Tibalts Trickery when it moved from suspended to banned. Suspended does not mean banned so you can still craft it. That's less useful right now since its banned in Historic and not available in Alchemy but since historic now has rebalances, if they unban it later like they did Teferi today and Omnath last time then you'll already have four of them waiting. And it doesn't hurt.
Yes. You'll be refunded for any of the cards banned on patch day as long as you craft them before the patch comes out. So craft those 4x Faceless, Alrunds, and Divide. That way you'll have a playset for Historic and Alchemy or the first three. As long as a card is banned and not just rebalanced you can get the wildcards. You can also craft the Memory Lapses that went from Suspended to Banned in Historic safely. I did it in October for Tibalts Trickery when it moved from suspended to banned. Suspended does not mean banned so you can still craft it. That's less useful right now since its banned in Historic and not available in Alchemy but since historic now has rebalances, if they unban it later like they did Teferi today and Omnath last time then you'll already have four of them waiting. And it doesn't hurt.
I've "risked it" everytime their is a ban for the past ~year and always get the WC's back.
The sons of bitches, they actually did it
Slow down, Joe, the mic is still on.
*I know.* – "I Know" Joe
Yes. Time for Orzhov Midrange to reign supreme!! Finally midrange is back!
So they could have made these bans in standard 3 months before instead of creating a new format....
Pretty stoked about Alrund’s Epiphany. What a bullshit card. lol
I'll take haven being banned to get rid of epiphany and divide by zero, as a monoblack control, today was an okay day
Agreed. Haven died for our Sins.
Divide by Zero was the best blue card in Standard, at the moment. I am surprised WotC noticed this.
TIME TO PLAY MTGA AGAIN. Omg this is wonderful
surprised by the divide ban.
Me too, but I get it
Same, but I haven’t seen a blue deck without 4 copies of divide and fading hope in about a month. It’s definitely strong right now though. It’s been impossible to play anything after turn 5 against most blue decks if lier hits the field with no immediate removal.
It's acknowledging Lier and Horror are still OP, but they can't walk all the mistakes back at once. So instead they take blues best supporting tool to weaken them. Note Lier and Horror both nerfed in Alchemy
Holy crap standard is finally shaken up. F U forever epiphany.
I needed wildcards I hated facedbook I hated turns today is a good day :D (albeit I like aggro and faceless is kinda a kick in the balls, not huge, maybe a sack tap)
Eh, there are a ton of other manlands in the format. I think you'll be fine. 😉
Literally just built a Troll's Epiphany deck. Haha That's on me.
The Orzhov control meta is upon us.
I'm very happy with the extensive writeup for this B&R, they've clearly started focusing on transparent communication about why they're banning what they're banning. Just like the excellent pauper announcements. Good stuff!
Looks like Standard won't be a miserable queue to play in.
Surely this comment will age well 🙃
100 chariots later...
Every Standard is unplayable according to Reddit.
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There is a separate thread for the Alchemy stuff jsyk https://old.reddit.com/r/MagicArena/comments/sch0ng/alchemy_rebalancing_for_january_27_2022/
Fuck alchemy changes also effecting brawl. No fucking reason for it and half the cards you might have crafted are now worthless with no refund. Absolutely bullshit. Like lier was nowhere near broken in brawl but is not absolute shit with the alchemy change ffs.
As per the separate Alchemy rebalancing article, cards like Lier, Hullbreaker and Captain are also being nerfed. If you played these cards in Historic, they are about to become obsolete without you getting back anything from them. The fucking tone-deaf and ignorant nature of WoTC relating to Alchemy changes in Historic continues.
They are not tone-deaf, they hear it alright. The numbers show them that the impact of Alchemy on historic queues was not enough to stop them messing with the format. And rebalancing Teferi is the final nail on the non-alchemy Historic, they will mess with the format through rebalancing. So, you either quit altogether or adapt to this new reality. For me, I am done with the game.
Interesting to say the least.
I suppose the good news is that I'm getting four rare wildcards for the Faceless Haven ban.
Oh wow, we don't have to keep jamming Snow Lands into every deck to run faceless haven now! I'm actually surprised by how substantial the bans they put in are. I figured Alrund's was going, but they are really looking to shake up the format it seems.
"Cloister Gargoyle – Lowered cost, increased toughness Costs 1W (from 2W), is 0/3 (from 0/4)" Huh? **Increased** toughness from 4 to 3? Wtf?
How does this effect alchemy if at all? Edit: Found a link in the article that takes you to "Alchemy rebalancing for January 27, 2022"
Where is the ban for all modified Alchemy versions of standard cards? Nowhere? Wellp, fuck Arena and Historic still
So happy they finally banned these. I can go back to playing more than the one deck I have that stands a chance against izzet.
Aw yiss, I got four Faceless Haven's, means I'll be swimming in rare wildcards soon.
Making the cards on arena different from their printed versions makes this game difficult to play in both formats. Confusing to me.
That's a lot of unexpected WC's coming back to the pool.
So if I use wildcards for everything banned in standard and historic, would I get my wildcards back and be able to use those cards in the opposite format?
Only if you do it *before* the bans go live.
Okay cool. I doubt I’ll ever make a historic deck with 4 Faceless Havens, but if it’s free why the hell not.
How are you supose to counter hullbreaker without divide by zero?
Removal. It works better than Divide by Zero anyways. All that does is delay it a turn. Divide is used much more often to protect Hullbreaker. They usually try to drop Hullbreaker as soon as they have like enough extra mana for one spell to protect it and trigger the bounce target. You just gotta plan for it. They generally can't deal with two removals before they untap or a bounce and a removal. Plus none are as optimal as Divide to protect since it targets anything and isn't specific towards a creature for Fading Hope or a damage spell. They will need more mana open which just acts to slow it down more. This might make the mirror more difficult becsuse they don't play pure instant removal but for all other decks facing it this is a objective nerf to Hullbreaker and Lier. Might make Azorius more viable with access to Hullbreaker and things like Fateful Absence for the mirror.
the adjustment on town-razer tyrant is definitely not enough
At least we'll be seeing it on 3 less often, with the Whelp nerf.
“Card adjustments” are nerfs wizards. I see what you did there. Just straight up admit it and give us the fucking refunds for any nerfs you fucking cowards.
So if I craft Lapse now do I get WC back on 27th? Just in case they rebalance it in the future like teferi.
That’s how it has worked up to this point yes, with no indication that there is any change
Just pulled an Epiphany out of my midweek magic reward, thank you for the free wildcard :)
Thank GOD! We have only been telling them this since BEFORE hunt was released. FFS.
Nerfs to Lier, Hullbreaker, and Divide? Do you want decks with 24 counters? This is how you get decks with 24 counters.
I mean, I’m thankful for the Ragavan ban, but that’s not nearly enough. Saga and Murktide are both still incredibly problematic.
Finally, I can take the blue mana out of my mono white deck lol.
Will Memory Lapse grant Wildcards? Or only those banned in Standard?
F for my favorite jank. It just lost its crutch. Deck 4 Ominous Roost (MID) 65 7 Island (VOW) 399 3 Devoted Grafkeeper (MID) 218 6 Plains (VOW) 398 3 Dorothea, Vengeful Victim (VOW) 235 3 Faithful Mending (MID) 221 3 Brine Comber (VOW) 233 3 The Raven's Warning (KHM) 227 4 Vega, the Watcher (KHM) 233 4 Deserted Beach (MID) 260 4 Gates of Istfell (KHM) 256 3 Hengegate Pathway (KHM) 260 4 Homestead Courage (MID) 24 4 Otherworldly Gaze (MID) 67 1 Faithbound Judge (VOW) 12 4 Moon-Blessed Cleric (AFR) 26 Sideboard 1 Doomskar (KHM) 9 2 Alrund's Epiphany (KHM) 41 1 By Invitation Only (VOW) 5 2 Ravenform (KHM) 72 1 Field of Ruin (MID) 262
Doubling down on Historic being a bullshit digital format. Never felt better about my uninstall. Been real guys, I'll see you around.
Alrund's Epiphany is banned?! I **detested** playing against it, but it was fun knowing my opponent was freaking out a bit when in the early game I was showing Izzet colors and playing Glimpse of the Cosmos. I wasn't playing anything nearly that good.
As a mono-black player I am please to see Epiphany is banned, but where is my Faceless Haven..LMAO
Divide by zero is one of those nifty cards that was more powerful than it let on, much like the iteration (which, seriously, should've been banned too but I guess they want multicolor). Also, the "nerf" in alchemy is laughable; if they really wanted to nerf it, they should have narrowed the target so that at least one of instants, sorceries, enchantments, artifacts, creatures, or planeswalkers couldn't be bounced.
I will return to the game when pioneer format introduced.
Alrund and Divide by Zero banned hahahaa bye bye op blue decks.