Fifth Dawn Previews: Is Five Color going to be a valid deck?

[Doyle]

Archived from groups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy (More info?)

One of the hints as to what Fifth Dawn will contain was revealed at
mtg.com today with the unveiling of one of the Bringers. Evidently the
Bringers cost XX5 or RWUGB and each has a big splashy effect. On
Monday MaRo revealed that Fifth Dawn has a lot of combo engine cards.
My guess is that some tie into the rainbow of colors for their
effects. So Wizards is pushing five color decks. But how far do they
need to push things in order to compete?

PT: Kobe showed the first hint of the Mirrodin Block Constructed
metagame: Big Red, Tooth, and Affinity. Big Red has a land destruction
element that will keep Tooth somewhat in check and an artifact
destruction element for Affinity. With a quick clock, Big Red is the
class of the field. Everyone and their brother knows about Affinity.
It doesn't lose too much in the transition to block. Tooth has a
number of the same tricks as before - Leonin Abunas + Angel or
Darksteel Colossus twins.

Five color decks have many of the tools needed to play. Sylvan
Scrying, Viridian Joiner, Journey of Discovery, off-color Myr,
Talismans can develop and diversify the initial mana base. They
generally don't add a threat to the board ala Affinity though.

Five color decks will feel the effects of splash damage from tools
aimed at Tooth decks. On the other hand, some of the splashy critters
can get plugged into the tooth deck as is - it's not like you were
planning on casting them anyway.

mypetrock

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy (More info?)

Doyle wrote:

> One of the hints as to what Fifth Dawn will contain was revealed at
> mtg.com today with the unveiling of one of the Bringers. Evidently the
> Bringers cost XX5 or RWUGB and each has a big splashy effect. On
> Monday MaRo revealed that Fifth Dawn has a lot of combo engine cards.
> My guess is that some tie into the rainbow of colors for their
> effects. So Wizards is pushing five color decks. But how far do they
> need to push things in order to compete?

First, they're going to have to deal with Skullclamp/Ravager Affinity
decks that will dominate MBC like nobody's business. Whether this means
banning or not, I don't know.

I do know that any five color combo is going to take a bit of time to set
up. Time that Ravager Affinity does not give you.

>
>
> PT: Kobe showed the first hint of the Mirrodin Block Constructed
> metagame: Big Red, Tooth, and Affinity. Big Red has a land destruction
> element that will keep Tooth somewhat in check and an artifact
> destruction element for Affinity. With a quick clock, Big Red is the
> class of the field. Everyone and their brother knows about Affinity.
> It doesn't lose too much in the transition to block. Tooth has a
> number of the same tricks as before - Leonin Abunas + Angel or
> Darksteel Colossus twins.
>

>
> Five color decks have many of the tools needed to play. Sylvan
> Scrying, Viridian Joiner, Journey of Discovery, off-color Myr,
> Talismans can develop and diversify the initial mana base. They
> generally don't add a threat to the board ala Affinity though.
>
> Five color decks will feel the effects of splash damage from tools
> aimed at Tooth decks. On the other hand, some of the splashy critters
> can get plugged into the tooth deck as is - it's not like you were
> planning on casting them anyway.
>

I guess we'll have to wait and see what Fifth Dawn brings to Standard &
MBC. One thing that always irks me when a new set comes out is the
ka-zillion card review articles.

Let's face it, no one will really know the full impact of all the cards in
Fifth Dawn until late July or August (if then) when all the playtesting is
done. I remember when Mirrodin first hit, most people wrote off the
Broodstar as too expensive. You could buy them for a buck each at Star
City for weeks until someone got brave and stuck them in an Affinity deck
and started ruling his FNM scene.

Unfortunately, patience has never been a Magic virtue.

Ken