Going to ignore most of the balance changes and give some opinions on the newest cards. You can read the full patch notes here.
New Cards
Once
a deck gets to the point where it can cast Wrathwood Colossus, the deck has
inevitability. The card itself has
everything you want for control/ramp: a gigantic 9/9 body with crush
(read:evasion) the life gain makes it near-impossible to race against, and
short of Inner Conflict, it just doesn’t die.
Problem is, Fist is bigger and also doesn’t die. Wrathwood probably fits better into multishard
decks, such as Blood-Life (possibly Sapphire), where Extinction allows you to buy
enough time to get Wrathwood on the field, and possibly return Wrathwood for
the follow up if the board is late and cluttered. This strategy would work better if Wrathwood
was more moderately tuned: replace the nines with fives or sixes and it’s much
more attractive. That said,
Extinction/Wrathwood style decks still give you a good way to stem the tide of
aggression while giving you options in the late game against control
decks. In limited, he’s a bomb, though dependent on the speed of the metagame he may not be as big of a push towards
green.
I
think most people will tunnel vision on the second ability without realizing
Lixil is a perfectly average card with threshold fixing, which will be very important
in an early metagame of Hex with only one or two sets out. The threshold search can activate the Major
on a Protectorate Defender or assure a Spearcliff Cloud Knight/Eldritch Dreamer
hits the following turn, all while maintaining pressure. In five-color decks where you actually want
the Invincibility on, she goes hand in hand with Midnight Shepherd and
Extinction. Perhaps the Necrotic will
have this Pentashard theme throughout their card development, though I’m almost
upset Lixil isn’t a Human since she might fit in a Triumvirate deck. In limited she’s very solid. Though you more than likely won’t be turning
on the invincibility, the fixing allows you room to play a little looser with
threshold in your curve.
I
like this card a lot in the pentashard decks, and possibly in the two-three
shard artifact decks. Pterobot, Rocket
Ranger, and Research Librarian come online much faster with this guy. Late draw is nice as well obviously. In limited it’s one of those cards that let
you feel better about splashing a third shard or playing a little loose with
threshold requirements, but because it cycles so slowly, though I’d probably
only add it to decks that have enough patience and pressence (read: bomb) that
allows you to safely pay four to cycle it throughout the course of the game.
Bone
Warrior wants to be a 2/1 so bad. If it
was, it might have enough presence to make you want to reanimate it
again. It’s good at stalling out draft
games, though eventually evasion men will outweigh the cost of reanimating him
again and again. Props on the style
points though.
The
average aggro deck usually has about 10-12 different non-shard cards in it, due
in part to the consistency needed in the first few turns of the game. Control decks and toolbox decks are much more
flexible with one-ofs and two-ofs, especially if they have tutor effects. That said, this card will slowly become
better and better as the card pool grows larger, and more flying men and tempo
effects are propagated. Sapphire is
already very strong on that front with bounce effects and counterspells, and
Servant of Shathak will likely be a staple.
In draft he provides a very swift clock in the early game, though since
most successful draft decks should be able to deal with a 2/2 flier, he needs
more support to merit a pull to Sapphire, since he will have a massive bulls-eye
in the early game.
In
draft he will rule the mid-game skies while providing an important hiccup to
any answers your opponent will try to invest in. The three threshhold looks dicey, but he’s
actually a decent six-drop if you have two up to use his ability. That said, the ability to play him on turn
four allows you to maintain aggression and make full use of his ability, which
doesn’t outright counter, but buys you time.
I’m actually curious how much play this thing will see in
constructed. He’s a pretty bulky tempo
dork, though in a deck that’s trying to abuse air superiority he’s legitimately
scary. He’s also a decent card for
protecting a combo as it’s about to resolve, or any spell that is imperative to
resolve in a control mirror.
Briar
Legion has no evasion, but subsequent plays make it bigger and bigger as the
game progresses, so if you have ways to return multiple copies from your
graveyard to play, or Replicator’s Gambit, though there are probably better (or
at the very least cooler) things to replicate.
That said, 4/4 are legitimate threats, and you only need to hit the
second one before these guys become very cost efficient. This is one of those cards that will be much
better in draft than sealed since picking upwards of three is more likely.
When
I first read Briarpatch Conjuror, I thought she shuffled herself into your deck
with counters and the Briar Legions she created stayed. I’m kind of relieved it works this way, since
Briar Legions can get out of hand once you draw enough. Problem is your opponent will be drawing
cards too, and I’d rather me creating a critical mass of creatures via Crash of
Beasts than a single Briar Legion. In
limited this card is perfectly fine. A
few activations will put enough in your deck to make them legitimate threats,
and the deck is small enough that you will see them more consistently. I’d still rather have Ancestor’s Chosen, but
ramming an increasing horde of gigantic monsters on the field is right up Wild’s
field.
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