Born of the Gods Thoughts
Standard forum
Posted on Feb. 4, 2014, 4:07 a.m. by DreamGoddessLindsey
Well, I've had a couple days since the pre-release to think about this set. I mainly play Orzhov Control. Looking at all the cards, I'm honestly quite underwhelmed. I see only a few cards I want (Phenax and Mogis and the minotaur that reduces minotaur casting costs). Most of the set seems to be janky and unplayable. Too many high drops. The pre-release itself was horrid. Most everyone (myself included) made the same complaint: this set doesn't mesh with limited much at all. A couple people got really lucky with god packs (including one person who pulled Foil Xenagos and Ashiok from a Theros pack), but for the most part, the entire things is just really sloppy. I'd say that this is the worst set that's come out since I started playing again in Dragon's Maze.
omnipotato says... #3
If you play W/B control you should be thrilled about Fated Retribution and Drown in Sorrow . That color combination didn't have any sweepers in Standard.
February 4, 2014 4:41 a.m.
@omnipotato you're forgetting about Merciless Eviction THAT is an Orzhov sweeper lol
As for BNG itself it's of course too early to make any calls yet, but I was a bit disappointed in the prerelease being 3 packs BNG (1 of which was seeded) to build with. Limited I think is really killer, I dunno what your card pool was like, but where I played there was a lot of everything being played. Enchant hate was pretty high as should be lol I met a few heroic builds which was painful slightly. Minotaurs will be a thing I think, they are stupid fast and with Ragemonger they can spit out multiples in a round. Kiora, the Crashing Wave is still an iffy card, she was my first pack and didn't bother using her (in fact I'm trading it for an Avacyn, Angel of Hope for EDH lol) I do see the overall higher CMC curve, I shot myself in the foot with Pain Seer tice when Archetype of Endurance showed its ugly 8 CMC head :/
I wouldn't call the set sloppy or anything, but I will give that it cold be a bit more and feels mostly like underpowered cards with Scry X attached to it to make it seem good. There is flavour and lore and great artwork in the cards and that I love. The Limited environment is playable. I wouldn't compare it to Dragon's Maze though.
Also wtf is that BS luck a foiled Xenagos and an Ashiok in the same pack!?!?! :o
February 4, 2014 4:51 a.m.
omnipotato says... #5
Whoops forgot about that card. Don't see it very often.
Kiora would probably be pretty good in Limited (talking out of my ass here because I rarely play Limited), her +1 can help her stay alive for a while I would think.
February 4, 2014 5:04 a.m.
DreamGoddessLindsey says... #6
I don't even play sweepers lol. Dark Realms of Orzhov is my primary deck and the only news cards I see for it are Revoke Existence for sure (god removal, better than Glare of Heresy in almost every way except getting rid of Elspeth, Sun's Champion ) and maybe possibly Archetype of Courage .
I would like to get Phenax, God of Deception for Dimir Mill because I think that'll be a big thing. Traumatize plus Consuming Aberration for the win.
I also think Ragemonger will make Rakdos Minotaurs a top-tier deck easily. Free Boros Reckoner s? Yes, please.
February 4, 2014 5:13 a.m.
DreamGoddessLindsey says... #7
Oh, and Kiora, the Crashing Wave is a garbage Planeswalker in my opinion. No staying power whatsoever. She'll be $5 way before rotation.
February 4, 2014 5:15 a.m.
omnipotato says... #8
Yay, Dimir mill for kitchen tables everywhere.
Ragemonger makes Boros Reckoner cost (R/W)(R/W). I guess if you happen to draw 3 Ragemongers and a Boros Reckoner...and they all happen to survive...
That's a midrange deck not a control deck. Why wouldn't you run Brimaz instead of Archetype of Courage? And Bile Blight is almost always better than Pharika's Cure .
Yeah I'm not sold on Kiora yet either. She looks good in my deck so far, but we'll see how the metagame pans out.
February 4, 2014 5:23 a.m.
@omnipotato Merciless Eviction is a sweeper in those colors, and it's standard. But the 2 cards you mentioned should be welcomed additions.
February 4, 2014 5:42 a.m.
Forget my previous post. My phone only loaded half the thread. I see someone else already pointed out the eviction
February 4, 2014 5:43 a.m.
There are a lot of very poorly designed cards with prohibitive casting cards, which wizards have tried to justify by sticking 'scy 2' or something similar on the end.
I hated the fact that almost everyone where I was drafted W/U fliers / weenies which was extremely powerful given that not everyone pulled Drown in Sorrow or Asphyxiate .
February 4, 2014 6:10 a.m.
I actually like the set a lot, and I'm always a skeptic. Some neat EDH cards, more temples, good White cards, and flavor all over the place.
I thought the limited environment was pretty good actually. I played WU and saw Simic, Gruul, another Azorius, Boros, and Izzet.
February 4, 2014 7:30 a.m.
Stone_Munkee says... #13
Searing Blood looks amazing, can't wait to play with it. Also Satyr Firedancer might be a thing in like a boros Young Pyromancer deck. And lest we forget Oracle of Bones + Enter the Infinite for game 1 hilarity.
February 4, 2014 8:47 a.m.
Born of the Gods was really fun to play sealed and could possibly be fun for drafting, but it doesn't add a whole lot to Standard at the moment aside from some pretty cool new removal spells, the gods, and Brimaz. I actually wish Wizards endorsed the sealed format as like a monthly thing instead of just for pre-releases.
February 4, 2014 9:33 a.m.
Ultimaodin says... #15
I don't know what you guys were playing at pre release but I had a tonne of fun with beast synergy between my commons, uncommons and rares. Archetypes are amazing.A card I've decided I need a playset of is Glimpse the Sun God . This card shouldn't be over looked. Tap down enemy creatures at the beginning of combat and trigger your own Heroics simultaneously is awesome. Not to mention tapping Inspiration guys to untap next turn and go to work.
Personally I had a lot of fun with the limited of it.
February 4, 2014 11:49 a.m.
Schuesseled says... #16
I really enjoyed the prerelease. First one I attended I got a couple of gods, which are really hit and miss in limited matches, more often than not they'd just sit in your hand doing nothing. But after trading those away for staples to sell, i figured i could afford to go to another. I got crappy cards value wise, but i did a lot better in the tournament, only lucks cruel fist stopped me taking first.
Fancy drawing no forests during game 1 and drawing no creatures during game 2. Couldn't do anything, didn't help that my opponent was a douchebag. He played infinite combos in a casual match before the tournament. Who does that?
February 4, 2014 12:14 p.m.
Ultimaodin - Gridlock has been in standard for a while and hasn't seen any play at all. It's also, arguably, better.
February 4, 2014 1:20 p.m.
DreamGoddessLindsey says... #18
My deck is a type of control in that it runs a lot of hand hatred and spot removal while I get threats out. I guess Midrange Control is a better term for it. Fated Retribution is just Planar Cleansing with a higher casting cost that removes slightly less. The card costs too much to see play while RTR block is still in Standard. After rotation, well, maybe. Bile Blight is probably mainly good to get rid of Boros Reckoner or against ramp or weenie decks.
Either way, not many changes coming to my deck.
As for Dimir Mill "for kitchen tables everywhere", you clearly don't see the potential for nasty stuff with their god like I do. Playing with all the control cards you can put in, you can easily protect your threats and remove their deck. Phenax, God of Deception makes it a viable competitive deck.
February 4, 2014 5:56 p.m.
omnipotato says... #19
Fated Retribution being instant speed is immensely important. The fact that it doesn't remove enchantments is also important, since most control decks use Detention Sphere. Bile Blight will be a staple black removal spell like Hero's Downfall , being way better than Pharika's Cure , Doom Blade , and Devour Flesh
U/B control is always better than U/B Mill. The mill cards waste space in your deck when you could be doing things to protect your life total. The only way I can see a deck happening with it is if you put a bunch of mediocre cards like Wall of Frost in your deck, which are pretty useless if you don't draw Phenax. Milling takes so long that you might as well play control until you can cast an Aetherling, and just beat them with damage. A card like Consuming Aberration is useless by itself, as long as an opponent has a chump blocker, so you need cards to give it flying/unblockable, putting even more cards in your deck that are useless by themselves. Only 1 hand in 10 will have everything you need to win in a mill deck.
February 4, 2014 7:42 p.m.
DreamGoddessLindsey says... #20
Not true. I'm not talking about using Consuming Aberration for attacking, I'm talking about using the ability given by Phenax, God of Deception . Once those two cards are out, every mill card increasing in value. Both are faster than AEtherling , and when you throw in Jace, Memory Adept and Mind Grind you're looking at completely toasting competition.
Fated Retribution is not a good card in current Standard if only because there are so many better/cheaper cards to use. I'd rather get a Desecration Demon on the field than ever look at Fated Retribution . The cards you can destroy with that will likely kill you before you get the mana to use it. It certainly doesn't stand up to Supreme Verdict , and is strictly worse than Merciless Eviction . I guarantee you will not see Pro Tour Top 8 decks running Fated Retribution .
February 4, 2014 9:26 p.m.
DreamGoddessLindsey says... #21
I just tossed together an early prototype of the kind of Control/Mill deck I'm talking about. A couple of different win-cons, milling being the big one.
February 4, 2014 9:39 p.m.
omnipotato says... #22
1.be a control deck
2.have seven lands untapped
3.have Fated Retribution and Rev in hand
You've basically won the game. Your opponent will play out their hand, wanting to get aggressive because they know you're about to Rev, and you kill all their guys and Rev the next turn. I'm not saying it's as good as Supreme Verdict, but it's not a bad card, especially in U/W/x control.
That mill deck looks like a bad pre-Theros build with Phenax thrown in. At least build the deck around Phenax with 4x Phenax, 4x Consuming Aberration, 4x Frostburn Weird, 4x Wall of Frost, 4x Master of Waves, etc. Even then, with the amount of removal everyone is running in non-aggro decks, and the speed of current aggro decks, your combo's very rarely gonna go off.
February 4, 2014 10:33 p.m.
Ultimaodin says... #23
ChiefBell - I have never seen Gridlock in my life. Why is this card not in Azorius Heroic? Did people miss this was a mass heroic trigger and a prevent combat card? Now to go seek a playset.
DreamGoddessLindsey - No offense but Phenax seems a waste in that deck. You can't mill until you hit Consuming Aberration or AEtherling, and if you have AEtherling why not just swing?
Also, Siren of the Silent Song is good!
Also, m mill build with Phenax:
BUG Escallation Playtest
Standard*
SCORE: 0 | 0 COMMENTS | 15 VIEWS- A bit slow to start but when the ball gets rolling it gets out of hand fast. Need to add the Siren to the sideboard
February 4, 2014 11:01 p.m.
omnipotato says... #24
Siren is a cool card. Probably the only good Inspired card yet, just for the fact that it's flying and won't immediately die in combat. I could see a Grixis hand disruption deck with it, Rakdos's Return , Thoughtseize , and Duress
February 4, 2014 11:08 p.m.
Am I the only one that really likes Oracle's Insight as well as Vortex Elemental ? Maybe vortex isn't that great of a card, but I feel like OI will see gameplay, as a blue version of Underworld Connections . What do you think?
February 5, 2014 1:29 a.m.
Ultimaodin says... #26
pretickleNope I want to play Oracle's Insight in a Simic Inspired Tap down with this, untap with Kiora's follower - trigger the Heroic, repeat process. Plus I can also play it on hexproof dudes to not risk the chance of being 2-for-1'd.
February 5, 2014 4:12 a.m.
I just don't think that control decks need both Fated Retribution AND Supreme Verdict . Again the argument is that if they didn't use Merciless Eviction then why use this. FatedR is only, barely, better. On T7 in control the board should be heavily in your favour. It's likely that you wiped T4 or T5 and countered new threats in T6. By T7 there shouldn't be a whole lot left to counter so SphinxsRev is the perfect play. A board wipe then is completely unecessary.
The other problem is that no one wants to use 7+ cmc cards because if you draw one early game it's a wasted draw. It'll sit in your hand and do absolutely nothing.
February 5, 2014 4:47 a.m.
DreamGoddessLindsey says... #28
Exactly my point. 7-drops, except for green cards in ramp decks, will not see play in Standard at the top level. Those high drops only really work well in Commander.
February 5, 2014 6:36 a.m.
SkateandDestory says... #29
I hated the set looking at it as a whole. I found it to be quite disappointing as my first prerealease/new set of magic since i started playing. However my event was fun regardless of my junk pulls i went 4 and 0 and had a blast. I like how the cards mix with theros. I personally like the mechanics in theros better such as monstrosity. I wouldn't especially want to draft born of the gods unless at least one pack was theros. I think it will all come together a lot better when the third set is released.
February 5, 2014 9:46 a.m.
SkateandDestory The draft format is BNG/THS/THS so no worries there.
After playing with it, I like it. I wasn't high on Herald of Torment
going into the prerelease, but after playing with him I fell in love. In limited him on a Servant of Tymaret
is just so good!
But I think suicide black might be a thing again, sure it'll be mono-B but a bit more dangerous.
I have to agree Fated Retribution is one of those that looks good on paper, but probably not something you want to play in a constructed deck, at least not mainboard. I ran Planar Cleansing in my sideboard for some decks, but it was a card I was rarely happy to draw.
February 5, 2014 9:58 a.m.
omnipotato says... #31
@ChiefBell Not necessarily. Against midrange decks, on turn 7 the game is still up for grabs. Against a G/R Monsters deck, even if you have Supreme Verdict ed, they will still have their planeswalkers, which you can only get rid of with Detention Sphere . And they have around 10 planeswalkers in their deck while you only have 4 answers.
Fated Retribution gets rid of planeswalkers while leaving your Detention Sphere s, so that alone makes it a lot better than Planar Cleansing , plus it's instant speed. Merciless Eviction is a card that gives you a lot of choice, but is usually just a higher-costed Supreme Verdict with no upside other than maybe getting rid of a God (which would be turned off by Verdict anyway) or a Voice of Resurgence . Plus, U/W control has stopped using black, so it can't use Merciless Eviction anyway, although I did see it in a few Esper Control builds.
I guarantee Fated Retribution will show up in top 8 decks as a 1- or 2-of, much like U/W control decks a long time ago played both Wrath of God and Akroma's Vengeance .
February 5, 2014 3:06 p.m.
I just disagree and don't think it'll turn up at all. Perhaps a 1-of in some decks.
February 5, 2014 4:47 p.m.
Don't forget it's a mono-colored boardwipe. That means Blueless control has a sweeper (stuff like BWR).
February 5, 2014 5:04 p.m.
Brad Nelson is in love with Fated Retribution He said he started playing Azorius control and Sphinx's Revelation when it was spoiled because he likes it so much. I think it's going to be a winner. It wont be a 4 of, but it will be main decked in the azorius decks.
February 5, 2014 5:24 p.m.
DreamGoddessLindsey says... #35
Why on earth would Azorius play that when they have Supreme Verdict ?
I guarantee, 100%, top 8 Pro Tour decks will not have this card in it.
February 6, 2014 2:31 p.m.
1 - it's an instant.2 - it hits planeswalkers.
Still it's pretty trash.
February 6, 2014 2:34 p.m.
DreamGoddessLindsey says... #37
It might see play in Block Constructed, but that's about it.
February 6, 2014 2:42 p.m.
SharuumNyan says... #38
Summing up BotG in two words: "Brimaz" and "Meh"
Although there are some good EDH cards.
February 6, 2014 2:45 p.m.
summing up BotG in 3 words 'OMG the uncommons'. This set is all about the power of the uncommons for me, the mythics/rares are meh. But the rest is not bad. A few will make constructed play and I would think should have been the rares.
February 6, 2014 2:48 p.m.
Bile Blight , Drown in Sorrow , Archetype of Aggression , Archetype of Courage , Searing Blood , Glimpse the Sun God , Ornitharch Spiteful Returned Satyr Nyx-Smith (omg so fucking good in limited, can see him in constructed somehow also), Fanatic of Xenagos , Kiora's Follower , Ragemonger , Reap What Is Sown , thesea re the ones that I'm mostly looking forward too, there are others that I can't wait to draft with.
February 6, 2014 3:06 p.m.
Ultimaodin says... #42
I actually agree that uncommons in this set are better than most rares. Take the Archetypes, they are all pretty damn beast (not counting Archetype of Endurance who strictly costs way too much to play) - for me Archetype of Imagination is the best with it being a massive win-con. Kiora's Follower in Modern playable and is all round an awesome card. Reap What Is Sown is intense in a set with Heroic. Ragemonger will make Minotaur tribal a think. Searing Blood is just the less effective but far more reliable Searing Spear . All round I like the Gods but the uncommons are pretty damn intense in this set.
February 6, 2014 9:50 p.m.
ChrisHansonBiomancin says... #43
@gufymike: I wouldn't be surprised if Satyr Nyx-Smith finds its way into sideboards in aggressive Red decks like RDW to be used against control, when blockers aren't a huge concern and he can supply an army and prompt a Verdict by himself.
omnipotato says... #2
I think it's really difficult to judge the Gods' power level until there's a lot of play with the set. Ephara and Xenagos look pretty good now, but they might end up being spectacular like Thassa. Brimaz, King of Oreskos may even make W/x aggro tier 1. Other cards like Courser of Kruphix and Kiora, the Crashing Wave are really interesting and make for good brewing. My deck Kiora Ramp takes advantage of their synergy to ramp.
I don't play much Limited at all, but there are some great cards for Standard in this set. Legacy even got Spirit of the Labyrinth that may end up changing up the format a bit.
February 4, 2014 4:37 a.m.