Poison??
General forum
Posted on Sept. 30, 2010, 1:42 p.m. by banchs
So about the whole infect mechanic. Is it really that flavorful and awesome? I mean, what's special about throwing a bunch of cards with infect together and swinging for the win? Its just normal aggro strategy (not saying aggro isn't awesome). In my opinion I think poison is still a moot point in magic, and just because Mark Rosewater spent his entire career into making it a bigger part of a set doesn't make it any better. I thought it was actually bad for the game that the mechanic is included just because of one designer's continued insistence on it being relevant and fun. I'm sure R&D could have come up with something MUCH more phyrexian than doling out poison counters....
But w/e, they make the cards, we play with em.
See but what people have to realize is that the way infect works on the poison counters is different than poison itself. For one, the obvious is that poison just puts one poison counter on while infect puts an amount equal to the creature's power. For two, and my favorite, poison stated, "When it deals combat damage," infect states, "when it deals damage." This means we can turn infect creatures into pingers and pingers into infect creatures. I made a deck based around this too (Ping you with Poison), you can use things like Power of Fire and Furystoke Giant for indirect damage and not even need to worry about their creatures.
September 30, 2010 7:50 p.m.
squire1 is right. Infect is awesome. It essentially doubles the power every creature has against an opponent. It puts the opponent on a VERY quick clock to deal with it.
That being said, I think metalcraft is unfinished. Carapace Forger and Chrome Steed are pretty decent beaters, and Auriok Sunchaser is great too. I think future sets will improve metalcraft to be the dominant mechanic in the set.
October 1, 2010 9:23 a.m.
i mean look at zendikar, vs worldwake, allot of mechanics from zendikar where improved in worldwake, allies got more interesting, and landfall got instant spells.
October 1, 2010 6:31 p.m.
SocialistElite says... #6
card:Ghalma's Warden is a strictly better version of Chrome Steed .
And if you are going for a red/green metalcraft aggro deck, then you forgot Auriok Edgewright and card:Ezuri's Brigade. Both of those guys are crazy.
Plus you have spells like Galvanic Blast and Stoic Rebuttal that are pretty good.
October 2, 2010 10:35 a.m.
card:Ghalma's Warden isn't necessarily strictly better than Chrome Steed . The Steed counts itself when looking for the magic 3 artifacts.
October 2, 2010 4:53 p.m.
Good point Justice , I also would like to point out you can put Chrome Steed in any deck, whereas card:Ghalma's Warden must be in a white deck of some kind.
October 3, 2010 12:58 p.m.
ilikeoldcardsbetter says... #9
I'm Not a big fan of poison counters. why don't you just start at ten life each?
October 3, 2010 3:41 p.m.
I like the idea of an infection deck. From the drafting on T/O I've done it makes for a fun deck. the challenge with infection creatures is that they cost a little extra and that they generally have low health, so that's while if I make an infection deck I try to put in cards like card:Accorder's Shield and Grafted Exoskeleton to keep my creatures alive longer, as well as running Tangle Angler , I see a lot of potential in Angler and it's a fun card.
October 5, 2010 midnight
nani75185 some easy ways to deal with low toughness creatures is also with enchantments like an of the green umbras (I say green because I'm assuming you don't use white for an infeect deck). Another good idea would be Leyline of Vitality . Since it is infect you will probably also run black in which case you could run Unholy Strength .
Coming from a legacy/vintage standpoint I would highly suggest Blanchwood Armor and AEther Web .
October 5, 2010 12:22 p.m.
@nani75185: I have a friend who's running a deck at States this weekend built around Tangle Angler . I'll let you know how he does =)
October 5, 2010 3:30 p.m.
he should run Prized Unicorn in fact cut out black all together. green blue is the way to go Racist infect
October 5, 2010 5:26 p.m.
Specifically Verdant Catacombs and Misty Rainforest.
With battle for Zendikar coming is $30 for a Verdant a good idea?
Also, Mistys are at $35 on tcg. Anyone see that going up or down?
June 11, 2015 5:26 p.m.
While it is totally impossible to know for sure, I personally think there is a good chance of them being reprinted in BFZ.
June 11, 2015 5:30 p.m.
VampireArmy says... #17
It's kinda scary though. If they don't reprint in BFZ, The Zendikar fetches will almost surely skyrocket
June 11, 2015 5:32 p.m.
GoldGhost012 says... #19
How about this: wait until spoiler week of BfZ. If WotC is smart (and they're not exactly dumb), fetches should be among the first spoilers of the set, because hype train. But, if you get far into spoilers without seeing them, pick them up before any spike happens.
Seem plausible?
June 11, 2015 5:33 p.m. Edited.
I will go on a limb here to even say that you may even be able to wait till about a week before the first bfz tourney before zen fetches spike if they aren't reprinted. I say this based of snapcaster mage's price jump.
June 11, 2015 5:38 p.m.
I'm honestly not so sure they'll spike, even they aren't in BFZ. With all the Khans fetches flooding the market, the need for the Zendikar ones just isn't that great. Sure, it's nice to have perfectly on-color fetches, but it's not absolutely necessary. People won't be willing to pay $50 for Misties when they can get Strands or Deltas for $20. I'd wait to pick them up when a reprint is announced.
June 11, 2015 5:40 p.m.
fluffybunnypants says... #22
Here's the thing. Even if they get reprinted, I doubt they'l dip much farther in value than they already have, especially if the new ones get printed with different art. Also, they will still remain a solid long term investment because they will still be needed in every eternal format, so their value will rise post rotation.
June 11, 2015 6:02 p.m.
I'd trade them. They're easy pick ups later anyway and if they are reprinted, even better.
June 11, 2015 6:05 p.m.
APPLE01DOJ says... #24
I'm waiting for a reprint to pick up the rest of the Zen fetches myself. Having 2 playsets of Zen fetches already they've more than payed for themselves. Last year Misty Rainforest was a 100$+ card so 35$ is not bad at all.
June 11, 2015 6:12 p.m.
I don't know I think if they are reprinted they will dip a lot. Shocks did. Though fetches see more play than shocks. Also any set with them in would be hugely opened. You'll have to be fairly quick though because if they're not in the set they will rise. No one can see the future so we're not too sure whether they will be in the set or not, or whether the price will rise after a week or 2 or a month etc.
June 11, 2015 6:32 p.m.
Servo_Token says... #26
As someone who has seen nothing but bad things when people make investment choices (ones that matter, like $50+) based completely on baseless speculation (IE Zen fetch reprint), I would say that you should hold off. Buy what you need now, and don't waste your money on a bad speculation target, one that everyone else and their mother is presently on.
June 11, 2015 7:02 p.m.
I don't see them reprinting the zendikar fetches in battle for zen. Their actual presence in standard wouldn't change anything. I think if they are going to be reprinted in the next year or two, it will be as Khans rotates, but Dragons is still legal.
That's just my opinion, of course it's possible we have a standard with the full 10 fetches... I just don't see it.
All ten shocklands were in standard because thematically it fit. Ten guilds, ten shocklands. There is no thematic reason to reprint the fetch lands as they don't relate to dragons at all. I think that the argument of "they were originally printed in zendikar so it's likely they will be reprinted in battle for z" is irrelevant, as it's clear by their reprinting the original fetches in a set that wasn't "return to onslaught" or whatever the hell they would have called it, that they don't care about that sort of thing.
June 11, 2015 7:52 p.m. Edited.
CastleSiege says... #28
There's not a whole lot I can add because most everything has been said.
However, I will say that if you're in need of them, trade what you already have instead of spending real cash. Trust me, spending money on something only for it to immediately drop in value gives you a serious case of the feel-bads. Losing trade value (usually) doesn't emotionally drain you nearly as much.
I was in a similar boat and needed both Verdant Catacombs and Misty Rainforest for my Titania, Protector of Argoth EDH deck. I ended up getting them from a LGS by trading in a bunch of stuff in my binder that I didn't care about (and no one ever bothered to look at) and paid like $5 in difference. If they end up tanking in price I won't even bat an eye because I was perfectly happy with my decision.
squire1 says... #2
I am not always in agreement with Maro but this time I am. Poison needed to be better, wither could have been better. Infect is awesome. Infect is aggro but it is all avoidance and spy like too. Can I do 10 damage to you before RDW can do 20 to me. i think that poison still has some room to grow, but this was a huge step in the right direction.
we should complain about metalcraft, so lame. What's next creaturecraft - if you have 5 or more creatures out you get a who cares token
September 30, 2010 2:25 p.m.