Thoughts on Nemesis
Karl Allen
I attended the Atlanta Nemesis prerelease this past Saturday. Over 300
people showed up to play. Lots and lots of them were young (early teens
or even younger), and something like 15-20 women were playing (my wife
is often the only woman playing in these events, so she was quite
happy with that). Encouraging signs for the future of Magic? I hope so.
Anyway, I went 3-2 with a pretty good deck and some unlucky draws (it
happens), then did a draft where I got hammered (thought I'd try a
risky strategy - it was so risky it killed me!). I got a foil
Volrath the Fallen out of it, though, so that's not too shabby. Here are
my thoughts on Nemesis as a whole:
-Fading: Kind of neat. It's not, as some people said earlier, just a rehash
of Cumulative Upkeep. CU requires you to keep investing more and more
resources into something, or else see it go away. With Fading you
pay the (highly reduced) cost, then move on to other things. The
Blastoderm is hideous to face unless you've got a Horned Troll or other
regenerator or you can pull rebels or mercenaries to chump block. Since
the 'derm is common it wasn't unusual to face decks with 2 or 3 in
them. One nice thing the designers did with Fading was make cards whose
powers are based on the number of Fade Counters, like Rust Golum.
-Laccolith Rig, without errata, is out of whack. Right now you can put
it on an opponent's creature and, when you block it, cause the creature
to do damage to any monster of your choosing. For R that's *way*
undercosted and out of flavor for Red. I smell errata coming...
-In Limited the Predator is insanely overpowered. Predator + 7 mana (not
at all uncommon in Limited) == dead opponent in most cases. I lost
a match because I didn't see the Predator in game 1, so I didn't bring
in any artifact destruction game 2. Oops.
-Some of the new Rebels are pretty neat. The one that takes off Fade counters
to prevent 2 damage to a creature or player is great. The Defiant Falcon
(bird rebel searcher) will make the value of Ramosian Lt in draft plummet.
-Massacre is going to screw over weenie decks, especially White weenie.
-2/-2 to all creatures? For no casting cost if they've got a Plains (and
only 2BB if they don't)? Kiss your Mother of Runes, Nightwind Glider,
and other such monsters goodbye...
-Shrieking Mogg sucks, and as I expected some people eagerly put it in
their deck thinking it was awesome. It pays to read the *whole* card
very carefully...
I didn't see many cards I thought would change the shape of Type II (although
Massacre might, and Mind Swords just seems dangerous). In all I liked the set,
but I tend to enjoy new sets a lot just for the variety.
I remain busy sorting my new cards (Hey, a third Shrieking Mogg!),
K
Christopher Wiegert
and thought I had a combo going with Defender en-Vec (remove fade counter
to prevent 2 damage) and Haunted Crossroads, but since once you pull the
last fade counter off you still need to wait until the next turn before it
dies, it's not so abusable, since you'll be stuck for one turn with a
regular critter.
Plague Witch worked well for me (-1/-1 spellshaper) and Stronghold
Gambit had its uses (both players reveal a creature card and the lowest
costing one is put into play) since it helped me avoid not having the color
of mana I needed to cast something, though I had surprisingly little trouble
with that considering my deck was 3 colors. Red and black were everywhere,
big shock. :) That Laccolith Rig trick you mentioned went unthought of by me
until my opponent tried it... it may well be errataed to only play on one of
your own creatures.
My star players were probably the laccoliths (3 of them), Plague Witch
(2) and the Defiant Falcon to search for one of the two gliders as needed.
At least those were the Nemesis star players... Cackling Witch, Haunted
Crossroads, and assorted red/black creature destroying from Masques were
handy too. Still wish I could've kept the deck I registered, which included
Volrath, Dawnstrider and the 5/5 regenerating Thorn Elemental guy (Rhok?).
Oh well. Next time...
Andrew Vance
Karl Allen wrote:
> I attended the Atlanta Nemesis prerelease this past Saturday. Over 300
> people showed up to play. Lots and lots of them were young (early teens
> or even younger), and something like 15-20 women were playing (my wife
> is often the only woman playing in these events, so she was quite
> happy with that). Encouraging signs for the future of Magic? I hope so.
> Anyway, I went 3-2 with a pretty good deck and some unlucky draws (it
> happens), then did a draft where I got hammered (thought I'd try a
> risky strategy - it was so risky it killed me!). I got a foil
> Volrath the Fallen out of it, though, so that's not too shabby. Here are
> my thoughts on Nemesis as a whole:
>
> -Fading: Kind of neat. It's not, as some people said earlier, just a rehash
> of Cumulative Upkeep. CU requires you to keep investing more and more
> resources into something, or else see it go away. With Fading you
> pay the (highly reduced) cost, then move on to other things. The
> Blastoderm is hideous to face unless you've got a Horned Troll or other
> regenerator or you can pull rebels or mercenaries to chump block. Since
> the 'derm is common it wasn't unusual to face decks with 2 or 3 in
> them. One nice thing the designers did with Fading was make cards whose
> powers are based on the number of Fade Counters, like Rust Golum.
>
Yes - fading seems like a very cool mechanic. The Ridgeback and the Blastoderm are
both excellent, as are many of the other critters with this ability. The ancient
hydra is just hideous - it's a really heavy sackbeating, especially in sealed or
draft. I had a situation where there was a creature stall, and I dropped one of
these. My opponent couldn't do a thing about it - next turn, it blew away his two
2/2's, I ran in with the hydra and my three 1/1's. Serious turnaround stuff.
>
> -Laccolith Rig, without errata, is out of whack. Right now you can put
> it on an opponent's creature and, when you block it, cause the creature
> to do damage to any monster of your choosing. For R that's *way*
> undercosted and out of flavor for Red. I smell errata coming...
>
(*shuts jaw*) - Damn! I SO wish I'd thought of that. Oh, boy.
> -Massacre is going to screw over weenie decks, especially White weenie.
> -2/-2 to all creatures? For no casting cost if they've got a Plains (and
> only 2BB if they don't)? Kiss your Mother of Runes, Nightwind Glider,
> and other such monsters goodbye...
Massacre is VV good. Very good. Serious ass-caning material for WW, or any green
deck that is elf-heavy.
Billy the Kid
Nemesis is a pretty cool set. One thing I don't understand is why
they print more and more of them cards that are way cool but nobody
would want them in their deck. Like Two-Headed Dragon and Volrath the
Fallen. And the Laccoliths, you might go combo with Blockade Runner
for something. Black is probably going to be mainly control in T2,
especially with Mind Swords and Mind Slash coming round. With Swords
you could maybe have your opponent discard 5 by the 2nd turn if you're
lucky. And Mind Slash makes the Rats so much more than chump
blockers. Ascendant Evincar is cool. Blastoderm is not a pretty
sight for black. Cheap, big, protected-good for green horde? I wish
they'd make the mercenaries better because once Negator's gone fast
black is probably going to die. But it seems that the mercenaries
will only recruit smaller and smaller forever and ever...
I don't do what you do
I don't think what you think
I'm not what you think I am...
John Saucier
Dominate is a nice card for taking those nasty MAN LANDS, like the treetop
village.
Animate Land is gonna be the replacement in the Natural Affinity\Eradicate
Deck.
Karl Allen <kal...@duncan.cs.utk.edu> wrote in message
news:87nel...@duncan.cs.utk.edu...
>
> I attended the Atlanta Nemesis prerelease this past Saturday. Over 300
> people showed up to play. Lots and lots of them were young (early teens
> or even younger), and something like 15-20 women were playing (my wife
> is often the only woman playing in these events, so she was quite
> happy with that). Encouraging signs for the future of Magic? I hope so.
> Anyway, I went 3-2 with a pretty good deck and some unlucky draws (it
> happens), then did a draft where I got hammered (thought I'd try a
> risky strategy - it was so risky it killed me!). I got a foil
> Volrath the Fallen out of it, though, so that's not too shabby. Here are
> my thoughts on Nemesis as a whole:
>
> -Fading: Kind of neat. It's not, as some people said earlier, just a
rehash
> of Cumulative Upkeep. CU requires you to keep investing more and more
> resources into something, or else see it go away. With Fading you
> pay the (highly reduced) cost, then move on to other things. The
> Blastoderm is hideous to face unless you've got a Horned Troll or other
> regenerator or you can pull rebels or mercenaries to chump block. Since
> the 'derm is common it wasn't unusual to face decks with 2 or 3 in
> them. One nice thing the designers did with Fading was make cards whose
> powers are based on the number of Fade Counters, like Rust Golum.
>
> -Laccolith Rig, without errata, is out of whack. Right now you can put
> it on an opponent's creature and, when you block it, cause the creature
> to do damage to any monster of your choosing. For R that's *way*
> undercosted and out of flavor for Red. I smell errata coming...
>
> -In Limited the Predator is insanely overpowered. Predator + 7 mana (not
> at all uncommon in Limited) == dead opponent in most cases. I lost
> a match because I didn't see the Predator in game 1, so I didn't bring
> in any artifact destruction game 2. Oops.
>
> -Some of the new Rebels are pretty neat. The one that takes off Fade
counters
> to prevent 2 damage to a creature or player is great. The Defiant Falcon
> (bird rebel searcher) will make the value of Ramosian Lt in draft
plummet.
>
> -Massacre is going to screw over weenie decks, especially White weenie.
> -2/-2 to all creatures? For no casting cost if they've got a Plains (and
> only 2BB if they don't)? Kiss your Mother of Runes, Nightwind Glider,
> and other such monsters goodbye...
>
DMHGHG
highlights
2headed dragon
cateran overlord
ancient hydra
haunted crossroads(COMBO WITH FADING HYDRA)!!!!
hal...@my-deja.com
kal...@duncan.cs.utk.edu (Karl Allen) wrote:
>
> I attended the Atlanta Nemesis prerelease this past Saturday. Over 300
> people showed up to play. Lots and lots of them were young (early
teens
> or even younger), and something like 15-20 women were playing (my wife
> is often the only woman playing in these events, so she was quite
> happy with that). Encouraging signs for the future of Magic? I hope
so.
> Anyway, I went 3-2 with a pretty good deck and some unlucky draws (it
> happens), then did a draft where I got hammered (thought I'd try a
> risky strategy - it was so risky it killed me!). I got a foil
> Volrath the Fallen out of it, though, so that's not too shabby. Here
are
> my thoughts on Nemesis as a whole:
I was at the San Antonio prerelease and we got 200+ (with another
prerelease in Houston) and quite a few women were playing; 3 of my 8
opponents were women; the 3rd, 4th, and 5th rounds. I posted a top
8 with a really amazing W/B deck. Highlights:
Haunted Crossroads (Combos with everything!)
Lightbringer/Lawbringer
Ramosian Lt.
Defiant ??? -- 2/2 rebel that searches and auto-destroys when blocking
Deathgazer
Voice of Truth
2xPlague Witch
Crossbow Infantry
Notorious Assassin
> -Fading: Kind of neat. It's not, as some people said earlier, just a
rehash
> of Cumulative Upkeep. CU requires you to keep investing more and more
> resources into something, or else see it go away. With Fading you
> pay the (highly reduced) cost, then move on to other things. The
> Blastoderm is hideous to face unless you've got a Horned Troll or
other
> regenerator or you can pull rebels or mercenaries to chump block.
Since
> the 'derm is common it wasn't unusual to face decks with 2 or 3 in
> them. One nice thing the designers did with Fading was make cards
whose
> powers are based on the number of Fade Counters, like Rust Golum.
For the most part, Fading is BAD. There are only 2 or 3 I like so far;
Blastoderm, Ancient Hydra, maybe the Woodchipper. I beat an opponent
with a Power Matrix out simply because one of their colors was green
with lots of Fading creatures. They didn't stay out long enough to win.
The Blastoderm is huge, but the others just don't matter enough.
>
> -Laccolith Rig, without errata, is out of whack. Right now you can put
> it on an opponent's creature and, when you block it, cause the
creature
> to do damage to any monster of your choosing. For R that's *way*
> undercosted and out of flavor for Red. I smell errata coming...
The end result may feel out of flavor for red, but red really is all
about damage. It's not really too undercosted, either. It's much
worse then Arrest, and worse than Muzzle, too. And I won't generally
play Muzzle in sealed if I can help it.
>
> -In Limited the Predator is insanely overpowered. Predator + 7 mana
(not
> at all uncommon in Limited) == dead opponent in most cases. I lost
> a match because I didn't see the Predator in game 1, so I didn't
bring
> in any artifact destruction game 2. Oops.
There are always amazing rares in the sealed environment. There
are enough really good artifacts/enchantments to be running some main
deck removal for them if you expect to do well. My Haunted Crossroads
won me an amazing amount of games; even when it was disenchanted
immediately.
>
> -Some of the new Rebels are pretty neat. The one that takes off Fade
counters
> to prevent 2 damage to a creature or player is great. The Defiant
Falcon
> (bird rebel searcher) will make the value of Ramosian Lt in draft
plummet.
I'm not that excited at all about the Fader. The Defiant Falcon will
just keep the value of the R. Lt. from increasing as the number of
Masques packs are reduced. It doesn't really change the fact that you
really want one of them when drafting rebels.
>
> -Massacre is going to screw over weenie decks, especially White
weenie.
> -2/-2 to all creatures? For no casting cost if they've got a Plains
(and
> only 2BB if they don't)? Kiss your Mother of Runes, Nightwind Glider,
> and other such monsters goodbye...
Massacre is cool. I really like it.
The red "4 damage to everyone" has potential; but I'm not convinced
it's good enough. Direct damage to players only has historically not
been good enough for constructed.
Daze has been really amazing in my new Extended deck; but I'll post
more about that later. Point is, under Stasis, Daze is about as
good as Force of Will.
Enjoying the new set,
Stephen Haley
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
Niccolo Machiavelli
here. We had about 30 people, which is huge for our area. I had a few
questions for folks in the 'States.
1)The Foil Rathi Assassin we got was dated January 29th, instead of Feb
5th. Were all of them stamped with the wrong date, or just our batch?
2) A lot of people had miscut cards and duplicates in their boosters. I
got 2 Belbe's Perchers and three other sets of dupes in one pack, and 2
vicious hungers in another pack (sorry, I can't think of what the other
cards were - I'm typing this from work on my 'smoke break'). Again, was
this a problem everywhere, or was it just the batch we got over here.
I thought Black go a big boost from Nemesis. Vicious hunger is
handy anti-black and good against most spellshapers without a big
drawback. The perchers are pretty good - BB for a 2/2 flyer is a good
deal, and its inability to block non-flyers doesn't seem to hurt. Just
about the only time I'm not attacing with flyers is when I'm holding them
back to defend against other flyers anyway.
Green got some good stuff, too. The fading G for 2/3 creature is
pretty nasty for a first turn drop. Rhox won matches for a few people,
and the stampede driver looks pretty nifty.
The Rackling and Viceling were both popular, especially once
people noticed that it worked against all of your opponents. The Preadtor
seems pretty good, but none of the people who had one in their deck placed
well in the tournament. Still think the falvor text for it should just be
"Pull!" though. Too much time trap shooting.
--
Dave C.
iN*T*x
hal...@my-deja.com
nigh...@fnord.io.com (Niccolo Machiavelli) wrote:
> I went to the pre-release tournament in Seoul, at the Army post
> here. We had about 30 people, which is huge for our area. I had a
few
> questions for folks in the 'States.
>
> 1)The Foil Rathi Assassin we got was dated January 29th, instead of
Feb
> 5th. Were all of them stamped with the wrong date, or just our batch?
Yes, they were all misstamped.
> 2) A lot of people had miscut cards and duplicates in their
boosters. I
> got 2 Belbe's Perchers and three other sets of dupes in one pack, and
2
> vicious hungers in another pack (sorry, I can't think of what the
other
> cards were - I'm typing this from work on my 'smoke break'). Again,
was
> this a problem everywhere, or was it just the batch we got over here.
The only time I've seen this is when one was a foil. If neither was
foil, this sounds like a horrible mixing job. I assume these were
not in English? The English packs seem to be okay.
>
> I thought Black go a big boost from Nemesis. Vicious hunger is
> handy anti-black and good against most spellshapers without a big
> drawback. The perchers are pretty good - BB for a 2/2 flyer is a good
> deal,
Note: Belbe's Percher costs 2B, not BB.
> and its inability to block non-flyers doesn't seem to hurt. Just
> about the only time I'm not attacing with flyers is when I'm holding
them
> back to defend against other flyers anyway.
>
> Green got some good stuff, too. The fading G for 2/3 creature is
> pretty nasty for a first turn drop. Rhox won matches for a few
people,
> and the stampede driver looks pretty nifty.
I again protest the usefulness of a 2/3 fading 2 creature for G.
I've seen arguements about how 6 damage is good, or it's about the
momentum. But it doesn't help enough. I remember watching a
match where someone played one turn 1 and a second turn 2. Sure, he
attacked for about 10 points of damage. But when turn 4 and 5 came
around, all of a sudden his side of the board looked mighty slim.
Rhox and Stampede Driver are good. Rhox is absolutely amazing; I almost
lost a game I had complete control over just because my opponent played
a Rhox. Luckily I drew a Vendetta after one attack and didn't die to
the enormous beast.
Karl Allen
>> -Fading: Kind of neat.
>For the most part, Fading is BAD. There are only 2 or 3 I like so far;
>Blastoderm, Ancient Hydra, maybe the Woodchipper.
Some of the fading creatures are sucker bets. The Ridgeback is, I think,
not so hot (but looks great at first glance). The Fading enchantments (Parallax
Nexus and Wave especially) are quite interesting.
>I beat an opponent
>with a Power Matrix out simply because one of their colors was green
>with lots of Fading creatures. They didn't stay out long enough to win.
>The Blastoderm is huge, but the others just don't matter enough.
Agreed.
>> -Laccolith Rig, without errata, is out of whack.
>The end result may feel out of flavor for red, but red really is all
>about damage. It's not really too undercosted, either. It's much
>worse then Arrest, and worse than Muzzle, too. And I won't generally
>play Muzzle in sealed if I can help it.
I may have overreacted on the Rig - I'll have to see it in play some to
decide if it's real good. Still seems out of place for red to me, but
who the heck am I?
>> -In Limited the Predator is insanely overpowered.
>There are always amazing rares in the sealed environment.
And some of them are always a little *too* amazing (Masticore, Cursed
Scroll). :-) This one is just too nasty, I think. The fact that it can
give all your creatures flying is an afterthought, which just shows how
nasty it really is.
>There
>are enough really good artifacts/enchantments to be running some main
>deck removal for them if you expect to do well. My Haunted Crossroads
>won me an amazing amount of games; even when it was disenchanted
>immediately.
Yeah, I think I may start maindecking (as opposed to sideboarding) stuff
like Crash and Mogg Salvage - there were a *lot* of artifacts people
will play with in Limited, from Rackling to Rust and Flint Golums.
>I'm not that excited at all about the Fader.
I think you'll be surprised by this one. The ability to prevent damage
for free can be huge, especially in creature stand offs. We'll see,
though.
>The Defiant Falcon will
>just keep the value of the R. Lt. from increasing as the number of
>Masques packs are reduced. It doesn't really change the fact that you
>really want one of them when drafting rebels.
Duh, you're right. The net number of two casting cost Glider-level searchers
will remain the same.
>> -Massacre is going to screw over weenie decks, especially White weenie.
>Massacre is cool. I really like it.
Massacre is one reason the Skyshroud Ridgeback might not suck. You could
play some kind of Ridgeback/Massacre deck, killing off their stuff and
leaving the Ridgeback alive. (Even then, though, I don't know...)
>The red "4 damage to everyone" has potential; but I'm not convinced
>it's good enough. Direct damage to players only has historically not
>been good enough for constructed.
Four damage for 2 mana is going to tempt a lot of people. I think it'll
actually see more play in constructed, though.
>Daze has been really amazing in my new Extended deck; but I'll post
>more about that later. Point is, under Stasis, Daze is about as
>good as Force of Will.
Daze? I don't know that one...
I remain dazed and confused,
K
David DeLaney
>1)The Foil Rathi Assassin we got was dated January 29th, instead of Feb
>5th. Were all of them stamped with the wrong date, or just our batch?
The ones I've seen from here had that date also.
Dave
--
\/David DeLaney d...@panacea.phys.utk.edu "It's not the pot that grows the flower
It's not the clock that slows the hour The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is all it takes to make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
http://panacea.phys.utk.edu/~dbd/ - net.legends FAQ/ I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.
DMHGHG
i opened 2 in my 3 packs too
Burr...@webtv.net
