MTG thread

WotC getting all uppity about spoilers has never sat right with me. Blah blah intellectual property, blahblahblah.

Really makes me wish the "bad guys" were more omnipresent such that the blowback wouldn't just be to shut down a region's worth of judges, or to slap a couple of venders. That WotC would have to make the choice to either suck it up and take the free advertising, or suffer through not being able to find judges or sponsors to run tournaments for a year or two and 3rd party sites simply drop MTG coverage for the same. Sure sure, they could maybe train up some crops right quick, and eventually the voids would fill.

But that would probably be a painful time period for the shareholders.

But ahh hell, who am I kidding. Even if such a fairytale scenario did come to pass, the suits at WotC would just blame other factors on the "temporary and completely planned decline in value" and the shareholders wouldn't even question it.

IP is all WotC creates as a business, of course they have to try and go ham on spoilers.

Liliana of the Veil is a busted magic card. Odds of a standard reprint must be like 1% or less.

Lily was fine in standard. She's honestly fine in modern too, in the absence of black fast mana. Powerful yes, but not busted.

WotC specifically said that the new rotation would allow them to reprint a bunch of cards they otherwise couldn't. So far BFZ has been a bust in that regard, but it was still being designed under the old system until half way through. Shadows Over Innistrad represents the perfect time for them to reprint Liliana of the Veil, it fits the story and isn't a terribly busted card when Mono-black Devotion isn't running around, which is the reason why she wasn't in M15. There's not too many other high profile cards they can reprint from Shadows Over Innistrad either, so if they don't print Liliana of the Veil it'll throw into question whether or not WotC will continue to reprint meaningful cards that aren't land.

If they are trying to sell this new angle of the planeswalker's story as the new motivator, doesn't reprinting 1BB Liliana seem off as opposed to creating a new Lili?

Thinking about it more, Liliana of the Veil probably isn't too strong a card if CoCo decks are still a thing after Rally rotates out.

They said under the new core-set paradigm we will be seeing Reprint Planeswalkers in expansion sets, because of the limited design space each individual Planeswalker has. "Jace draws cards and mills" can only iterate so many different ways without feeling silly, and reprints pad the amount of time before we reach the silly-zone.

Welp, when I'm wrong, I'm wrong. 50/50 on Lili in SoI?

Shadows Over Innistrad block is probably the last time a Liliana of the Veil reprint makes sense story wise, she still has the veil and she is still Liliana. Now, she could end up keeping the veil after SoI but I doubt that's where the story will go.

I do wonder how high up the leaks run. WotC pays its employees crap compared to other companies in the Seattle area. Plus, their toxic workplace culture doesn't breed much loyalty. It would not surprise me if the leaks came from the main office.

Amusingly, Madness is awkward with Liliana of the Veil, since you can use it to activate your own Madness cards... but also risk activating your opponents' madness cards. And since lili generally comes down and -2s, it's pretty easy for the opponent to "set up" for her +discard.

Punko_sl said:

current azban midrange with 4x lili seems balanced

i mean the card is a powerhouse in legacy, what harm could it do in standard where bolt like spells aren't very popular?

Click to expand...

Abzan loses so much on this next rotation (Siege Rhino, Anafenza, Abzan Charm) that it's going to be tough to play as a deck. This alongside fetchland rotation will make a deck design shift from just throwing shit together because mana is easy to having to be more conservative to work with a reasonable manabase. We'll have to see what comes in SOI, but I think the meta is going to look very different (or that CoCo decks will just be absurd).

Punko: Abzan is getting dismantled at rotation. It loses Rhino, Abzan Charm, Wingmate, Sorin, etc. Plus last time in standard Liliana of the Veil was fine. Things like CoCo, Ruinous Path, the prevalence of tokens, and the madness mechanic should keep her in check. Oh no, I have to discard a World Breaker, or oh no, I will discard this Madness spell, excuse me while I cast it.

Chickenpants_sl said:

Abzan loses so much on this next rotation (Siege Rhino, Anafenza, Abzan Charm) that it's going to be tough to play as a deck. This alongside fetchland rotation will make a deck design shift from just throwing shit together because mana is easy to having to be more conservative to work with a reasonable manabase. We'll have to see what comes in SOI, but I think the meta is going to look very different (or that CoCo decks will just be absurd).

Click to expand...

I agree, GW megamorph featuring CoCo, Den Protector, Sylvan Advocate, and Deathmist Raptor will be a good place to be. I suspect the manabase could be stretched to include blue which then gives you the current bant CoCo deck.

I wouldn't mind seeing a set or two come along to change the meta away from super mana-heavy decks with 3-5 colors. Something (for my old, slow brain) a little slower paced perhaps and a design focus on non-land cards. I could very possibly be in the minority though.

It's going to happen automatically. The powerful 3 color cards are rotating out along with the fetches that made 4 color the best manabase. So long Crackling Doom, I won't miss ya.

Burren_sl said:

I wouldn't mind seeing a set or two come along to change the meta away from super mana-heavy decks with 3-5 colors. Something (for my old, slow brain) a little slower paced perhaps and a design focus on non-land cards. I could very possibly be in the minority though.

Click to expand...

Slower paced? The 4 color decks aren't exactly 'fast' compared historically to previous standards. Even the faster ones would still very much be classified as midrange decks in previous standard formats.

That said, I otherwise agree that a change up in the meta would be fine. I also think Lilly of the veil COULD be fine in standard, if they designed around it knowingly. Throwing her in with madness seems like a very tight rope to walk, though. Enabling your own madness while having an effect on the board by killing creatures could be fun, or it could potentially be broken if the madness cards are too good with her.

Day 2 of SCG Louisville, 31 of 65 players on Eldrazi of some sort. Yuck.

It's a dark day when people are rooting for Affinity to win a tournament.