First Impressions: Eventide - Black & Red Mono-color (Part 3). - by Chris Newton

[Streetz]

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[hamsandwich]

love the hate!

red sucks(has sucked) and the chroma cards make me sick(even the black one).

the black retrace cards are ridiculous, i've got a casual game this friday and can't wait to use them...

[Aladdin]

I like the two black retrace cards, Raven's crime especially and Syphon Life
Retrace is useful and comboes well with plenty of cards (Life from the Loam, Crucible of Worlds, Trade Routes, Daze and stuff) but the real thing is that those two cards aren't overcosted the first time you cast them !
You know I really want to use Oona's Grace? But I'm sure it will never work 2U to draw a card in the first place is just too expensive

Otherwise,

Originally Posted by CPN

Heartlash Cinder - 1R
Creature - Elemental Warrior
Haste
Chroma - When Heartlash Cinder comes into play, it gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is the number of red mana symbols in the mana costs of permanents you control.
1/1

FI: He could potentially be really, really big, or not. I’d say that in a late game situation, if you can tandum him with a Demigod, you could get some serious damage across. One Demigod comes into play, drags two buddies out of the grave, and then you play this little guy with a big surprise, give him +16/+0 and I guess attack. I mean, why be scared right? Don’t get me wrong… I am a control player, and have been known to make mistakes with my attacking with creatures due to not playing them all that often, but I think if you have three 5/4 fliers and a 17/1 haste creature in play, I should attack.

Grade: A, Red overall score: +1

I really dislike that card
A 17/1 attacker is too easy to shut off. I'd like it to cost more but to be gifted with First Strike or Trample. Besides, what is this red deck that hasn't already won when it has 16 RRR mana symbols on the board ?

Overall, nice article
I like it when you're demanding towards cards' quality.

[Demonbrn]

That Oona's Grace would work well with an Underworld Dreams or other like card, it sure beats the combo I was trying to use with Forced furition+Underworld Dreams+Megrim >.< And if you're useing a G/B/U deck, Tilling treefolk make that retrace not such a burden.

[Drathro]

Despite the vitriol, that was a pretty fair assessment of the cards. I'll still get my in, as expected...

Not all imps suck, you know. Putrid Imp, Skittering Skirge, and Stinkweed Imp are all Imps with tournament-level histories. As a matter of fact, I would play Stinkweed Imp, even if Ichorid, Narcomoeba and Bridge from Below never existed. That's how good I think an imp can be!

On the other hand, I agree that Soot Imp is nothing to write home about. I expect it will be used in casual Orzhov decks, but beyond that...nah. More likely it will end up a multiplayer spell that costs and essentially reads, "An opponent loses one life."

[Demonbrn]

I would have to disagree, though Soot Imps aren't a great factor to build a deck around, they would be great for a sideboard, even if you could get 2 or 3 into play, that would be 2 or 3 life your opponent would loss for each spell they would cast. Maybe they'll come out with a variant of Frogtosser Bannerant to reduce imp spells by 1C soon.

[Drathro]

Originally Posted by Demonbrn

Maybe they'll come out with a variant of Frogtosser Bannerant to reduce imp spells by 1C soon.

An Imp Lord would be AWSOME! Not very useful, but AWESOME! And funny.

EDIT: I just had a fun and annoying idea for Soot Imp: Soul Foundry! You know you want to try this, admit it! (Ok, maybe not. Maybe I'm just amusing myself again.)

* Drathro is still easily amused.

[hamsandwich]

Originally Posted by Drathro

Not all imps suck, you know. Putrid Imp, Skittering Skirge, and Stinkweed Imp are all Imps with tournament-level histories. As a matter of fact, I would play Stinkweed Imp, even if Ichorid, Narcomoeba and Bridge from Below never existed. That's how good I think an imp can be!

stinkweed is one of the greatest cards to see print. i have used it as a default aggro stopper(in multiplayer) on many occasions. it is most likely going into my next dredge creation along with a few bg gems from eventide. i too, was taken aback with the "all imps suck" comment these are first impressions, though, and having written a couple of them now i am well aware of how your emotions can take over your judgement.

@ demonbrn: i can't wait to get my hands on a set of tilling treefolk and see how they work with retrace. the great thing is that you can put them in either the ug or bg builds. good call.

[Tynion]

Wait a minute Mr. Drathro, are you aware that there are 27 Imps in Magic, and you named me three good ones. Do you know that you are telling me that 11.1% of all the Imps are good. I would even argue that if you are not playing limited or a Dredge deck, there is no good reason to play Stinkweed Imp, and the other imps you named are sub-par card selections anyways. If you are trying to tell me that in a deck where you are going to play 20ish creatures, that you can not find 20 better creatures to play (20 / 4 = 5 different creatures) then I call your bruff and say, "No." There is not a format outside of limited where in its time, you could not find five better black creatures than those damn Imps that would force you to play an Imp.

THEY ALL SUCK 0% are good. Face it lol.

edit: NINJA'ED BY HAM!!!!

Ham, you too are mistaken. Aggro decks don't fear your Imp, Aggro decks use creature removal on your Imp, bash you in the head for 8 and let you put six cards in your grave so you can put the imp back out, so they can wax the imp again. Great, maybe they will let a 'Goyf get block killed, they still hit you for 6 with the other three guys.

There are much better options than these damn Imps. You might as well play Royal Assassin Ham. You are assuming that they are not Incinerating your Imp, so the Assassin sits there throat slitting things as they walk by and doesn't cost you six cards a turn.

Casual does not equal 'play all your suck cards.' It means play a relaxed feeling deck.

[hamsandwich]

tynion: please list your top ten black one drops of all time. will putrid imp not be there?
stinkweed rocks in multiplayer as it can keep almost everyone off your back because the guy with the huge trampling green creature doesn't want to trade his life for yours!

*pokes tynion with a stick*

[Tynion]

Originally Posted by hamsandwich

tynion: please list your top ten black one drops of all time. will putrid imp not be there?
stinkweed rocks in multiplayer as it can keep almost everyone off your back because the guy with the huge trampling green creature doesn't want to trade his life for yours!

*pokes tynion with a stick*

In no real order...

Hypnotic Specter, as we all know he really costs B (Dark Ritual)

Shadow Guildmage

Carnophage

Carrion Feeder

Plagued Rusalka

Festering Goblin

Dark Supplicant

Stone-Throwing Devils

Disciple of the Vault

Alright, so you have a point, I needed to name th top nine one drops before I got to one being an imp. Good job ham.. yet I point out that you rarely play more than one one drop creature type.

[Demonbrn]

To generalize, I love all the lifelink in it (I'm a noob getting used to all the new rules, read my post in introductions). for a player like me, lifelink is a godsend, giveing me a bit more time to get other cards out to give me even just the slightest chance at winning, lol.

[hamsandwich]

Originally Posted by Tynion

Alright, so you have a point, I needed to name th top nine one drops before I got to one being an imp. Good job ham.. yet I point out that you rarely play more than one one drop creature type.

i'll take it. *puts away stick*

[Drathro]

Originally Posted by Tynion

Dark Supplicant

* Drathro smiles

* Drathro LOLs

* Drathro tries to stay on topic...


My favorite mono-black card from Eventide is probably Ashling. It would get an "A" from me, as well.

I suspect the most overrated mono-Black card will be Nightmare Incursion. A little cheaper, and it might be good, but at that price it seems like it might be too little too late. I'd give it a "D" as my first impression.

Even though I don't play a lot of Red, I'll pick a favorite as well - Thunderblust seems to be pretty sweet to me. Could be fun with Pandemonium. Then again, what isn't fun with Pandemonium?

Originally Posted by Demonbrn

To generalize, I love all the lifelink in it

I also noticed how much life gain is in Eventide, and I don't expect this trend to stop. I think the designers feel that life gain makes for longer games, and they think that longer games = more interaction = more fun (to a point - certain cards that make games longer, like Shahrazad, really irritate a lot of people).

[Tynion]

Hang on a minute there Drathro, get off of Dark Suplicant!! In its time it had quite a few things going for it, and it was in ALOT of standard and limited decks:

1.) One drop black creature
2.) Cleric creature type
3.) Sac it and a fist ful of clerics to get a fat meaty creature at the end of your turn so I can smack/snatch one of your guys.

I can't see any of your imps comparing to the strength of Dark Suplicant.