Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Legacy Lost Spoiler #3 - Impressions

Let me preface this by saying my experience and knowledge on the Seven Luminaries and their decks is very limited, and the only real interaction I've had with the decks are from helping a friend build a deck for them that he mostly ripped off the internet. That said, let's dive right in to today's spoilers, and those with great reading comprehension might have guessed it's a new Seven Luminary.

powerofthegods

Here we have Sol, the Luminary of the sun. As noted by his flavor text, he trained both Mars and Mercurius, so his Red/Blue typing makes sense. With only 5 colors in the game, I had been wondering how they were going to churn out Seven different Luminaries, but dual-typing some of them is a nice touch. Sol's ruler side is pretty cut and paste from his two disciples: RU1 Judgment, energize (but with the two-color option), and the Mana keyword, which he can use for either blue or red. That alone makes him objectively better than Mars and Mercurius in pretty much every way, being able to play any Ancient Magic they could all by himself.

Flipping him, though, is where the differences start to show. He has the standard Mana 5, and gets 5 more if you remove his respective demon familiar when flipping him, but he only comes in with a measly 500/500 body. By removing his minion from the game, he gets a hefty 600/600 stat buff and enters as an 1100/1100 (It's also worth noting that this is NOT an automatic ability, it simply happens as he enters, so you can't chase something like Space Time to his entering the field to cheese him). That puts him 100 ATK and DEF over his students, but without a keyword. Mercurius' Flying is an extremely powerful bonus, so it might make you stop and think about which Ruler to run, but I respect that FoW included that opportunity cost. This guy being able to use all of Mercurius' Ancient Magics, PLUS Mars', is way too strong to not hamper him just a little. Coming in as a 5/5 if you're forced to flip without having his demon in hand is a nice catch to him in my opinion. It at least keeps him from 100% power creeping the previous two out.


Speaking of his familiar, let's look at how it stacks up to Mars' and Mercurius' little buddies. Runic Commander Demon, Akiot (try saying that 3 times fast) has the standard 600/600 body for a 2-drop, putting him at 100 ATK/DEF above the other two familiars, just like his master. Continuing the parallel, though, he's lacking in keywords like Namblot and Astaroth. On enter, he puts a mana counter on your J/ruler, and you can bounce him whenever you play a chant. To me, this feels a little lackluster, although I suppose it needs to be. Namblot automatically bounces himself at the end of the turn, but is packing swiftness and has the potential to kill something with his burn effect. That gives him decent aggro/removal power while simultaneously protecting himself. Astaroth draws a card on-enter, netting you hard advantage, but requires you to pay 2 water to bounce him. Akiot has no way of giving you advantage, and there are plenty of easier and cheaper ways to give your J/Ruler a mana counter that don't risk your familiar dying and you losing out on 5 counters later on. But, as I said, Sol needs a bit of a handicap so he doesn't completely outshine the other two.


Twin-Headed Dragon is an interesting card. Being Blue/Red, he fits right in to Sol's deck, but can just as easily be tossed into Mars or Mercurius. A 1000/1000 flier for 4 mana isn't the greatest thing in the game, but it isn't the worst either. Being able to pay his awakenings with mana counters is an awesome mechanic too, and I kind of wish you could pay his whole summon cost with Mana, but that might be a bit too much. Awakening with red will burn a resonator for 1000 when he enters, and awakening for blue will rest two resonators and keep them like that for another turn. Mercurius and Mars can each make use of one of his Awakenings with their Mana, but only Sol can get the most efficient use out of both of them. This guy is a HUGE tempo swing, capable of removing up to 3 of the opponent's big players from the equation, at least temporarily. He's also a great way to bait out negation/counter cards that would otherwise be used on your Ancient Magics.

keeptalkingandnobodyexplodes

Speaking of Ancient Magics, here are the two that got spoiled for us today. Conjure Time Bomb, for the low cost of 2, will create a 100/100 "Fire Bomb" resonator token that, at the beginning of your next turn, will blow up and deal 1000 damage to your opponent AND all J/resonators they control. If you awaken it for RR1 more, the timer is shortened drastically and it explodes at the end of your turn, so if your opponent isn't packing immediate removal, they're gonna have a bad time. The amount of tempo this card can earn you is MASSIVE, especially against decks like Fiethsing Turbo or Fairies, that like to go wide and flood the board.

The other beauty is Rune of Sol. For RU, you can grab ANY Ancient Magic from your deck and add it to your hand. With QUICKCAST. What. Got some unused will before untap? Why not search for your big finisher card. The fact that this can be played with Mana counters is just insane. Sol can now run 1-of's of any Ancient Magic and not sweat seeing them. Mercurius just got 4 more consistency cards to ensure that big Rising play is going to happen. Mars can nab Invitation to let you know you're about to die. Black Moonbeam is searchable.


Rounding out today's spoilers, as usual, is the new Special Magic Stone. Magic Stone of Vaporization has the standard Shockrock text of coming in tapped if your J/ruler isn't Sol or you don't pay 300 life, counts as both the Fire and Water Magic Stones, and can produce both colors. It's unique effect is, by tapping itself and any other will source, you can put 1 mana counter on your J/ruler. You have leftover stones before you're about to recover? Turn them into permanent mana counters. That's just absolutely insane.

Sunday, October 23, 2016

Legacy Lost Spoilers 1 & 2

It's been a while since I posted on here, but since Destiny's Rise of Iron expansion dropped, I've been a little more than preoccupied with the 'ole grind. But we've got brand new spoilers out, so I've made my triumphant return. I missed putting up an article in the middle of last week, so I'm going to double dip a little here and give my 2 cents all at once. So with that, let's dive right in.


The theme for this set is dual attribute, for better or worse. I like to think that Glorius/Faria is on the "better" part of that. Light/Green isn't anything new, as we've seen that with Kaguya and Seal of Wind and Light, but it makes sense to support an already-established color combination so players have more options in deck building. Judgment for LG1 isn't anything special, 3-cost seems to be the standard this cluster, but the L/G energize token is interesting. Now we get a coin that can be one of two colors, which is directly superior to the rulers of last set only having a mono-color coin. I'm not calling power creep, since these are designed to be multi-color decks, but as long as there's an opportunity cost here I'll be ok with it. If we see more cards like Hook, where you can get severely punished for playing dual stones, then these dual-color decks will easily be kept in check. Glorius' last ability is a hand filter similar to what Reflect (RIP) used to offer, but much more balanced. You have to discard a card with the Inheritance keyword, while still only being usable on your turn, once per turn.

He/she flips into Faria, Ruler of Divine Beasts. This looks like something out of a bad fanfic: Faria isn't dead anymore! But also she has all of Pricia's powers and is part beast. That being said, she has a standard 1000/1000 body and retains her original on-enter, get a free stone ability. Her J-Ruler side also supports Inheritance, letting you play your first one each turn for free (while still discarding the card). This is incredible for will-fixing, if we get any non-Light/Green Inheritance cards. Her final ability is a God's Art, which has no cost, but only grants her Barrier for the turn. This isn't going to save her from Black Moonbeam, but your opponent won't be targeting her with anything else for the game. All in all, she's a pretty solid card, but her overall usefulness is going to be determined by how good the Inheritance cards are.


Speaking of Inheritance cards, here we are. Beast of Holy Light is a 1-drop 3/3, which isn't anything special, but is packing Barrier Black/Red. Honestly, that doesn't mean too much in the current game, as black hasn't had widely-used removal since Grimm rotated out. Most of their effects either discard or banish, although there is the occasional card like Melder. Red still has Lightning Strike, but realistically, protection against blue is what people will be coveting in the coming format. It isn't like you're going to be putting this guy on the field most of the time, though. He's got meh stats and does nothing on the field, but his real use is his Inheritance ability. As explained on his card, Inheritance is paid by discarding him and paying his designated cost (1 light will, in this case), and he essentially adds himself to a J/resonator. Buffing them 300/300 and giving them Barrier Red/Black for the turn is a good way to push in a little extra damage, but realistically that isn't going to matter, and like I said before, the colors for Barrier are convenient, but don't mean as much as they used to.

Sacred Beast of Wind is barking up the same tree. It's also packing a 300/300 body and is a 1-drop, but it has flying instead of barrier, which is also swapped in his Inheritance ability. He's Inheritance Green rather than Light, and grants 300/300 and flying rather than Barrier. Giving any J/resonator flying is really powerful, but is incredibly similar to Dreams of Flight, another 1-cost card that grants power and flying. While Dreams has a die-roll attached, it's more often than not going to be as good, or better, than Sacred Beast's Inheritance ability, plus it has remnant. 

As a mechanic, I really like Inheritance. It essentially says "This resonator is also a spell," this is incredibly flexible in nature. However, with the strength of the mechanic being that 1 card can be both a resonator and a chant, it's for that very reason that I don't think these two cards are very good. They're very vanilla as resonators, weak first turn plays, and awful late-game drops. You'll very rarely use them for anything other than than their Inheritance, and there are just stronger cards for that. For the same cost as Beast you can play Magic Sweets, which gives 100 less ATK/DEF, but grants barrier against everything, and is searchable.


Divine Beast of Attoractia is a little more what Inheritance cards should look like. It's a 2-drop 600/600, which is the standard power that a 2-drop needs to be. As a resonator, whenever you play an Inheritance ability, it gains 200/200 and "When this card deals damage, gain that much life." Keep in mind that this stacks, so playing 2 Inheritance cards means this thing becomes a 1000/1000 that will let you gain 2000 life whenever it does damage. Using Sacred Beast of Wind's Inheritance would make it 1100/1100 with flying that would heal you for that much on-hit. This card has really great pressure as a resonator. As an Inheritance card, though, it's a little lacking. Similar to the previous two, its Inheritance cost is the cost of playing it, but it only grants its ATK/DEF and no additional keyword/effect. However, using Faria's ability, you could potentially play it for 0 mana, which is pretty strong. And since it has powerful resonator presence, it can beat out stuff like Rapid Growth, which would be +800/800 for 2 mana.

Faria's Summon is just stupid. Tutor ANY resonator in your deck at instant speed (making it an excellent sink for leftover mana before your recovery phase) while refunding part of its cost with Torrent. Disregarding its use in an Inheritance deck, just imagine it in Fiethsing turbo. The deck naturally runs Green/Light, but being able to search Gwiber, and packing natural synergy with the deck's gameplay, is just incredible. 


Rounding out the first spoiler is Pricia's Memoria. What we have here is a second Green/Light Dual stone, with a bit of a cost. It still counts as a Wind Magic Stone and a Light Magic Stone, but will come into play rested if your J/ruler isn't Glorius/Faria, or if you don't pay 300 life. So you can throw this into any deck. just pay 300 life when you flip it, then go on about your day, giving decks access to 8 Green/Light stones. This also has the added benefit of being able to pump Faria by 200/200, giving you a neat will sink during upkeep. I really like the precedent this card sets, and this is exactly what the BFA Memoria cards should have been. There's no reason to run it over Gusting Skies, but if your deck absolutely needs access to Green/Light, you have a way. It isn't as cancerous as Ruler's Memoria, as it still locks you into 2 colors. Plus, using it with its intended Ruler removes the cost. I'm excited to see more of these.


Moving on to the second round of spoilers, we can tell that the FoW creators recently got dumped by Pricia and just can't get over her. Two Pricia-related spoilers in a row? Move over Lapis, we might as well call it Pricia Cluster. Instead of Faria, though, we have Valentina using Pricia's powers. She's become a little more civilized looking since BFA when she initially took Pricia's body. It looks like FoW finally broke down and admitted Blue/Black is THE deck, and gave us a deck dedicated to it. Valentina 5.0's Ruler side has the same Judgment formula as Faria 3.0, being her 2 colors plus 1 void mana for the standard 3-cost Judgment. She's also packing the dual-colored energize, as well as a unique ruler-side ability (or two, in her case). Playing a blue chant will give a resonator -X00/0, where X is the cost of the chant. This doesn't make Separation of Body and Soul a 1-card kill anything (unless there's already something with altered ATK/DEF), but is still a nice debuf that may come in handy. The black ability, though, is where most of the plays will come from. Playing a darkness chant gives something 0/-X00, so dropping the defense by the cost of the spell. Since losing DEF can kill a resonator, I'd wager this ability is just strictly better. Dark Purge becomes a -600/-800, giving it reach to kill 3-cost resonators, and playing something like Scorn or Nameless Mist can also kill Fiethsing tokens/weak resonators. It's also worth mentioning that Space-Time Anomaly triggers both of these skills, making it a -700/-700.

Flipping her, she has the standard 1000/1000 body, but also let's you play water/darkness cards for 1-less void (making the distinction that it only counts for cards that are dual attribute), and her second ability let's you banish 2 of your resonators to kill 1 resonator, or draw 1. This sounds like a minus, but remember that Alice's Little Scout and Messenger Familiar exist, and her support all make tokens. My biggest gripe with her, though, is her first ability. Currently, the only Water/Darkness card in the game is Space-Time Anomaly, which doesn't have a void cost. Anything that can be reduced with her ability will come in this set or later, meaning FoW is going to directly dictate what she works with, and given their track record of support, it will be exclusively limited to this set, save for a couple cards later in the cluster. I hate it when companies essentially build your deck for you, which is what's happening here. What's more, all of her cards are going to be designed with this effect in mind, which is going to hamper their usefulness in any deck outside of her own.


Here are 2 examples. Illusory Protection doesn't have a void cost, but is a 4/4 2-drop, putting it drastically below the standard power level for its cost. It will generate what is essentially a clone of itself when it dies, in the form of a token. This card is good for Val's 2nd effect, since it replaces itself, as well as Adrombrali's Incarnate cost, but it's pretty lackluster as a whole for being weak and not doing too much on its own.

Illusion Wizard is in the same boat. 500/500 for a 3-cost is just awful. The idea is "Oh, Valentina makes it a 2-cost, so it's good!" and yet, 500/500 for 2 will that creates a 400/400 token on-enter is pretty good value, but ONLY when Valentina is flipped. It's mediocre otherwise. For a more flexible cost, Light has Peter Pan, who not only has better stats, but also let's you get any 1-drop Fairy Tale from your deck, rather than generate a vanilla token, and also has flying.


Deceptive Dream also falls into this category. 700/700 for FOUR will is really bad. Even if it forces your opponent to discard a card on-enter, and let's you draw 1 on-death, that makes it a fairly meh floater. And again, the idea is "She's actually a 700/700 for THREE, because Valentina", which severely hampers this card's design and usefulness.

Moojdart is a little more acceptable. She's 800/800 for four, which is still expensive, but she's packing Flying, and will buff water resonators by 200/200, and the same for darkness resonators. This means dual-attribute water/darkness cards will get 400/400, an absolutely absurd buff. She can also give herself Barrier by banishing any other Fantasy resonator (which is the race of all the water/darkness tokens the Val support make), and she becomes a 3-cost with Valentina's effect. The whole idea of this deck seems to be "All of our cards are mediocre, but we have 2-3 cards that make them really strong," which is a neat idea to be sure, but rather gimmicky. I'd have preferred to see something more along the lines of how Vampires operate, being good stand-alone cards, but gaining benefits/consistency when played all together. I'll reserve final judgment on this deck until we see all the support for it, but it's still a "Here, we made this, play it" deck.


Finishing off this spoiler article is Remains of Attoractia, Valentina's special stone. It's her clone of Pricia's Memoria, being a shock rock if she isn't your J/Ruler, tapping for her colors, and giving an additional effect that only she can benefit from. In this case, you can tap it to give a token 100/100. Not really too powerful of an effect, but I assume it can add up in the long run, and it's always nice to have a will sink. Still nowhere near as bad as the BFA Memoria stones.