Everyone has set reviews, but I always consider the archetype guide to be the one must see limited video to watch before I draft a set. Very excited and thanks for your hard work.
Both are important Each card seperate and if you can combine them into a good combo even better We will see after release but more an constructed player here
The archetypes video is my favourite in each review you make! I love analyzing and predicting how each color pair (or trio) will perform! Having said that I think each dual color pair and triple colors are nicely distributed. Since each house has a major theme that is somewhat supported by their two dual colors, you can mix and match without losing the synergy. You can see this in every house... for example maestro doing graveyard things with BR focusing on sacrifice and BU on graveyard matters. However..... I think there is something weird with Cabbareti?? Their idea is to go wide... which the GW also supports by promoting citizens tokens... but the RG part of it (treasures) is not exactly on the same plan? Maybe I am overthinking it but it does seems somewhat unfocused compared to the other houses.
I agree about the Cabaretti. The treasures don't work with their other themes and that deck doesn't particularly need the ramp. I think the Brokers are just as awkward. While the WU part works well, since it's all about counters, including shield counters, that deck isn't the best for the citizens payoffs. I think this means that Citizens will be often available to the cabaretti player since the brokers won't want them (also means the good WU cards will go faster, so this might affect Obscura a bit) Jund/Riveteers seems the best positioned. Both of their subthemes are sacrifice, with the Treasures theme directly helping the Sacrifice payoffs in BR. It will be relatively easy to get good Treasure stuff since Cabaretti won't really want it. I'm guessing four color UBRG valuetown will be viable with treasures and super strong
I don't know if you mentioned it but I think the unblockable fish tokens are going to dominate the draft, they just have so much synergy with the set mechanics and will likely require an answer from your opponent.
This was super helpful! I just started playing again during Neon Dynasty. The new set seems way more complicated but I feel way more confident now. Thank you! Can’t wait to start playing with these new cards. :)
New Capenna looks even more complicated to draft, but not any more complicated to play than Neon Dynasty. Granted that’s because things like ninjitsu, reconfigure and sagas meant cards were bouncing all over the place and turning from enchantments or artifacts to creatures and back again. New Capenna doesn’t look quite as crazy, as most of the effects are enter/leave the battlefield ones, but it’s definitely complicated enough people will lose winnable games because they didn’t set stops on Arena.
@@benjaminkidd2655 Yeah, good point. I was thinking it will be hard to keep all the color synergies in mind when drafting. Also, I like drafting in person in addition to drafting on Arena. I feel like this new set uses a lot of different counters and tokens so things may get hard to keep track of (for me). Either way I’m excited. Neon Dynasty is a lot of fun but I’m ready for something new.
@@derekv7781 Based on play so far, looks like New Capenna is probably at least as complex, rule wise, but maybe not as complex in planning your turns. The most complex mechanics in New Capenna seem to be timing related. There are a lot of ways to sacrifice creatures at instant speed and lots of death triggers that require precise play to get right. For example, if your opponent Whacks your Raffine’s Silencer, if it dies tithe -4/-4 your death trigger does nothing (it will be 0/0 when it dies), but if you sacrifice it in response with a spell or ability you actually get to put a useful trigger on the stack.
A stupid idea I had: if you forced the enemy color decks, or the wedges, what would the themes most likely be, and which would seem to be the best deck on average?
Probably jank, and probably temur would be the best, since you would end up with a RG aggro/treasure with the best evasive creatures you could get from blue.
I'll take a shot. Each wedge has one two-color archetype in this format, so I think that would be the main focus of the deck, while the third color would run support. Best deck: Mardu Sacrifice Go-Wide BR core with white creature enablers like Gathering Throng, Mage's Attendant, Patch Up Abzan Citizens Value WG core with black sacrifice value like Grisly Sigil, Dig Up the Body, Dusk Mangler Might be okay: Temur Treasure Ramp RG core with blue mana payoffs like Sewer Crocodile and Hypnotic Grifter Bad: Jeskai Counters Tempo WU core with some treasures maybe? Unblockable fish + antagonize could do something Sultai Threshold Value UB core with some beefy green creatures
Enemy color decks could be fine, but not if you force them. If you see two enemy colors open or crack a second mono color bomb in an enemy color, it seems playable. Effectively you would be playing two colors of a family without the middle color. If one of your colors is green or red, it will probably work, but it seems like something you do after grabbing a few really good cards, then seeing those colors dry up while an enemy color is super open.
The closest I've gotten to this thus far is an izzet aggro deck I had. Only reason it worked well was cause it had 3x faerie vandal which were really good with mayhem patrols, plasma jockeys and a one of pugnacious pugilist as well as some connive cards in blue. I could have considered running some black as well but it didn't seem worth the added strain to the mana base and just running the hyper aggressive izzet aggro deck seemed a lot better. It would definitely not have been worth it without the faerie vandals, those were critical to making the deck work.
I think I’m going to jump into limited this set, this set looks exciting. I don’t know why, but limited “scares” me, and I usually don’t even perform that poorly, I guess it’s just the aspect of not wanting to waste tokens and money.
Still worried about Shield counters. I think the 1/1 devils that do a damage when they die will make shields less effective than other famile abilities. Not useless but also just not as good as I initially thought. Great video overall though. Love the coverage we get on this channel.
@@NizzahonMagic hmmm...maybe I'll go rewatch the multicolor and red videos then. I got the impression there were a lot more. But you are the expert here, doing the research.
This is the type of information i was hoping to see. I've watched quite a few set reviews and everyone is saying that there is plenty of sac/token generation/payoffs for x synergy, but is there? I'll say that i haven't actually drafted a three color set/multicolor(Unless Kamigawa counts :)) but i'm actually pretty skeptical that some of the cards is going to be as good as people are saying when they grade cards in a vacuum. They sort of assume that the synergies are going to work out without really going into the details/analysis on whether there is just sufficient cards to make it work. Alot of the uncommons are good, but there are fewer uncommons per pack. But if you look at cabaretti for example, ALMOST all of the payoffs/enablers are uncommons. The commons you want for this deck are actually pretty slim when you think about it compared to the uncommons, and no doubt something like exhibition magician will be picked first over other commons, but again there isn't going to be an exhibition magician in every pack and it has cross synergies with other families. I guess since its creature fall, it doesn't actually require a stated synergy since even your mediocre commons will add to it(you sort of get it incidentally for this family). But I think the danger is that you can easily end up with a deck/color set that wants to be synergistic but there isn't the ammo there for it to be possible at common in general - and that's without having other people pick those commons. I'll also say that the mill 6 mana rare might work out because of everyone drawing cards via connive/self mill/etc. Might not be unplayable.
The token generation is everywhere in this set. Additionally there are lots of synergies between the different family mechanics. The tokens you generate can trigger alliance, casualty and sacrifice payoffs on the same turn. Red/Green clearly seems the strongest, especially in draft, since it can go aggro hard but also has lots of treasure so you can actually use the multicolored bombs you see in pack 3. Since treasure is good all around, though, it seems likely the other archetypes will be weaker, but still playable as 3-4 players go for treasure & tokens and the other colors are left open.
Mana Value is the new wording for Converted Mana Cost, to make it more distinct from simple Mana Cost. Lands don't have a Mana Cost, but they do have a Mana Value (Converted Mana Cost) of 0
So what I meant about the sacrifice archetype in my last comment is that the fodder doesn't look very good and everything seems so expensive. But I hope I'm wrong, I love the archetype in draft. It just seems so slow and hard to make work. We don't have anything close to a Doomed Dissenter in terms of proper fodder. And the payoffs are clunky, don't always impact the board and it's often very expensive. Also spells don't synergies with themselves, so if you really want to go Maestro, having some spells but not too much will be a tough thing to balance. Like we are missing a spell that creates a bunch of tokens, and we are missing some proper "whenever [...] sacrifice a permanent [...]" at no cost
This will be a mess more messy than ikoria... in that one at least the "tribes" were very well defined. Good luck actually getting those synergies to work at all when at least 3 other "archetypes" are competing for the exact same cards in common and uncommon, especially the latter.
I think combination of blitz and casualty might be good. Since blitzed cards are sacced at end of turn, anyway, saccing it for a casualty effect is no loss.
I honestly don't get the fuss over Lagrella's wording, it was clearly designed with commander in mind, and changing the wording to say one controlled by you and one by your opponent would actually alter what the card does.
I agree that it's not that bad but "For each player, exile up to one target creature that player controls" would've been easier for people to understand. Starting with "any number of creatures" is just a weird way to open an ability that lets you exile up to 2 creatures most of the time and up to 4 in commander.
@@FinetalPies Exactly. Your wording is 1000x more clear. Unless there is something I am missing, I can't understand why they chose the wording they did.
Correction for Structural Assault, it only deals damage equal to artifacts that went to the graveyard, not artifacts destroyed, so just sacrificing treasure will cause it to deal no damage
You are incorrect. Treasure goes to the graveyard, it just disappears once it gets there. So it counts for a card like that, just like a token going to the graveyard triggers something like Liliana, Death's Majesty.
Honestly the RG theme and all the cards related to it feel like the biggest meme wotc has ever put out there. It’s no wonder so many people online have thrown this set out as being just a thing more designed for limited and commander players moreso than standard.
Everyone has set reviews, but I always consider the archetype guide to be the one must see limited video to watch before I draft a set. Very excited and thanks for your hard work.
Both are important Each card seperate and if you can combine them into a good combo even better We will see after release but more an constructed player here
Lol creaturefall, I don't know why I didn't think of that earlier but yeah.. it works
The archetypes video is my favourite in each review you make! I love analyzing and predicting how each color pair (or trio) will perform!
Having said that I think each dual color pair and triple colors are nicely distributed. Since each house has a major theme that is somewhat supported by their two dual colors, you can mix and match without losing the synergy. You can see this in every house... for example maestro doing graveyard things with BR focusing on sacrifice and BU on graveyard matters. However..... I think there is something weird with Cabbareti?? Their idea is to go wide... which the GW also supports by promoting citizens tokens... but the RG part of it (treasures) is not exactly on the same plan? Maybe I am overthinking it but it does seems somewhat unfocused compared to the other houses.
I agree about the Cabaretti. The treasures don't work with their other themes and that deck doesn't particularly need the ramp.
I think the Brokers are just as awkward. While the WU part works well, since it's all about counters, including shield counters, that deck isn't the best for the citizens payoffs. I think this means that Citizens will be often available to the cabaretti player since the brokers won't want them (also means the good WU cards will go faster, so this might affect Obscura a bit)
Jund/Riveteers seems the best positioned. Both of their subthemes are sacrifice, with the Treasures theme directly helping the Sacrifice payoffs in BR. It will be relatively easy to get good Treasure stuff since Cabaretti won't really want it. I'm guessing four color UBRG valuetown will be viable with treasures and super strong
Really appreciate the breakdown of the archetypes, very useful and made me aware of some interesting interactions. Good work.
I don't know if you mentioned it but I think the unblockable fish tokens are going to dominate the draft, they just have so much synergy with the set mechanics and will likely require an answer from your opponent.
played a connive deck at the prerelease. The deck is a tempo deck for sure. It feels like the blue white flier deck for the format.
29:40 Toulouse-Lautrec, Clever Conductor
the work you put in is huge, thanks a lot. hyped!
Thank you for the review! Always helpful and enjoyable.
This was super helpful! I just started playing again during Neon Dynasty. The new set seems way more complicated but I feel way more confident now. Thank you! Can’t wait to start playing with these new cards. :)
New Capenna looks even more complicated to draft, but not any more complicated to play than Neon Dynasty. Granted that’s because things like ninjitsu, reconfigure and sagas meant cards were bouncing all over the place and turning from enchantments or artifacts to creatures and back again.
New Capenna doesn’t look quite as crazy, as most of the effects are enter/leave the battlefield ones, but it’s definitely complicated enough people will lose winnable games because they didn’t set stops on Arena.
@@benjaminkidd2655 Yeah, good point. I was thinking it will be hard to keep all the color synergies in mind when drafting. Also, I like drafting in person in addition to drafting on Arena. I feel like this new set uses a lot of different counters and tokens so things may get hard to keep track of (for me). Either way I’m excited. Neon Dynasty is a lot of fun but I’m ready for something new.
@@derekv7781 Based on play so far, looks like New Capenna is probably at least as complex, rule wise, but maybe not as complex in planning your turns.
The most complex mechanics in New Capenna seem to be timing related. There are a lot of ways to sacrifice creatures at instant speed and lots of death triggers that require precise play to get right.
For example, if your opponent Whacks your Raffine’s Silencer, if it dies tithe -4/-4 your death trigger does nothing (it will be 0/0 when it dies), but if you sacrifice it in response with a spell or ability you actually get to put a useful trigger on the stack.
A stupid idea I had: if you forced the enemy color decks, or the wedges, what would the themes most likely be, and which would seem to be the best deck on average?
Probably jank, and probably temur would be the best, since you would end up with a RG aggro/treasure with the best evasive creatures you could get from blue.
I'll take a shot. Each wedge has one two-color archetype in this format, so I think that would be the main focus of the deck, while the third color would run support.
Best deck: Mardu Sacrifice Go-Wide
BR core with white creature enablers like Gathering Throng, Mage's Attendant, Patch Up
Abzan Citizens Value
WG core with black sacrifice value like Grisly Sigil, Dig Up the Body, Dusk Mangler
Might be okay: Temur Treasure Ramp
RG core with blue mana payoffs like Sewer Crocodile and Hypnotic Grifter
Bad: Jeskai Counters Tempo
WU core with some treasures maybe? Unblockable fish + antagonize could do something
Sultai Threshold Value
UB core with some beefy green creatures
Enemy color decks could be fine, but not if you force them. If you see two enemy colors open or crack a second mono color bomb in an enemy color, it seems playable. Effectively you would be playing two colors of a family without the middle color.
If one of your colors is green or red, it will probably work, but it seems like something you do after grabbing a few really good cards, then seeing those colors dry up while an enemy color is super open.
The closest I've gotten to this thus far is an izzet aggro deck I had. Only reason it worked well was cause it had 3x faerie vandal which were really good with mayhem patrols, plasma jockeys and a one of pugnacious pugilist as well as some connive cards in blue. I could have considered running some black as well but it didn't seem worth the added strain to the mana base and just running the hyper aggressive izzet aggro deck seemed a lot better. It would definitely not have been worth it without the faerie vandals, those were critical to making the deck work.
I think I’m going to jump into limited this set, this set looks exciting. I don’t know why, but limited “scares” me, and I usually don’t even perform that poorly, I guess it’s just the aspect of not wanting to waste tokens and money.
Best way to get value on Arena by a long way. Kamigawa was amazing I'm less excited for this set but it looks fairly balanced ..
Thank you for this, helped a lot with navigating the draft.
Glad it helped!
I think starting with Naya and not Esper triggered some kind of OCD within me... great video, keep it up!
Still worried about Shield counters. I think the 1/1 devils that do a damage when they die will make shields less effective than other famile abilities. Not useless but also just not as good as I initially thought.
Great video overall though. Love the coverage we get on this channel.
There aren't actually that many devils tokens in the set. There are 0 Commons that make them - 1 uncommon, 1 rare, and 1 mythic.
@@NizzahonMagic hmmm...maybe I'll go rewatch the multicolor and red videos then. I got the impression there were a lot more. But you are the expert here, doing the research.
@@johnquiett1085 I mean, just do a search on scryfall or gatherer. You don't have to watch a whole video again! Haha.
While Casualty looks a fun mechanic, some of the Grixis cards look underwhelming or too expensive. Jund looks insanely good.
This is the type of information i was hoping to see. I've watched quite a few set reviews and everyone is saying that there is plenty of sac/token generation/payoffs for x synergy, but is there? I'll say that i haven't actually drafted a three color set/multicolor(Unless Kamigawa counts :)) but i'm actually pretty skeptical that some of the cards is going to be as good as people are saying when they grade cards in a vacuum. They sort of assume that the synergies are going to work out without really going into the details/analysis on whether there is just sufficient cards to make it work.
Alot of the uncommons are good, but there are fewer uncommons per pack. But if you look at cabaretti for example, ALMOST all of the payoffs/enablers are uncommons. The commons you want for this deck are actually pretty slim when you think about it compared to the uncommons, and no doubt something like exhibition magician will be picked first over other commons, but again there isn't going to be an exhibition magician in every pack and it has cross synergies with other families. I guess since its creature fall, it doesn't actually require a stated synergy since even your mediocre commons will add to it(you sort of get it incidentally for this family). But I think the danger is that you can easily end up with a deck/color set that wants to be synergistic but there isn't the ammo there for it to be possible at common in general - and that's without having other people pick those commons.
I'll also say that the mill 6 mana rare might work out because of everyone drawing cards via connive/self mill/etc. Might not be unplayable.
The token generation is everywhere in this set. Additionally there are lots of synergies between the different family mechanics. The tokens you generate can trigger alliance, casualty and sacrifice payoffs on the same turn. Red/Green clearly seems the strongest, especially in draft, since it can go aggro hard but also has lots of treasure so you can actually use the multicolored bombs you see in pack 3.
Since treasure is good all around, though, it seems likely the other archetypes will be weaker, but still playable as 3-4 players go for treasure & tokens and the other colors are left open.
Does a land count as a zero mana cost in your graveyard for the 5 mana values mechanic?
Yes
Mana Value is the new wording for Converted Mana Cost, to make it more distinct from simple Mana Cost. Lands don't have a Mana Cost, but they do have a Mana Value (Converted Mana Cost) of 0
For anyone coming back in the future to draft this set for some reason just force bant there is no other deck!
23:39 Are treasure tokens put into the graveyard?
No
So what I meant about the sacrifice archetype in my last comment is that the fodder doesn't look very good and everything seems so expensive. But I hope I'm wrong, I love the archetype in draft. It just seems so slow and hard to make work. We don't have anything close to a Doomed Dissenter in terms of proper fodder. And the payoffs are clunky, don't always impact the board and it's often very expensive.
Also spells don't synergies with themselves, so if you really want to go Maestro, having some spells but not too much will be a tough thing to balance. Like we are missing a spell that creates a bunch of tokens, and we are missing some proper "whenever [...] sacrifice a permanent [...]" at no cost
Wooooo
This will be a mess more messy than ikoria... in that one at least the "tribes" were very well defined. Good luck actually getting those synergies to work at all when at least 3 other "archetypes" are competing for the exact same cards in common and uncommon, especially the latter.
You must never have played a real three color set before. Btw, Ikoria wasn't one.
I think combination of blitz and casualty might be good. Since blitzed cards are sacced at end of turn, anyway, saccing it for a casualty effect is no loss.
💜⚡️
I honestly don't get the fuss over Lagrella's wording, it was clearly designed with commander in mind, and changing the wording to say one controlled by you and one by your opponent would actually alter what the card does.
I agree that it's not that bad but "For each player, exile up to one target creature that player controls" would've been easier for people to understand. Starting with "any number of creatures" is just a weird way to open an ability that lets you exile up to 2 creatures most of the time and up to 4 in commander.
@@FinetalPies Exactly. Your wording is 1000x more clear. Unless there is something I am missing, I can't understand why they chose the wording they did.
Correction for Structural Assault, it only deals damage equal to artifacts that went to the graveyard, not artifacts destroyed, so just sacrificing treasure will cause it to deal no damage
You are incorrect. Treasure goes to the graveyard, it just disappears once it gets there. So it counts for a card like that, just like a token going to the graveyard triggers something like Liliana, Death's Majesty.
Honestly the RG theme and all the cards related to it feel like the biggest meme wotc has ever put out there. It’s no wonder so many people online have thrown this set out as being just a thing more designed for limited and commander players moreso than standard.
The word 'archetype' has three syllables and you are incorrect in pronouncing the word as though it only had two syllables.
The "uh" middle syllable is in it, I just say the word quickly. Which, yeah, probably means I mis pronounce it. Haha.
You are a very sad keyboard warrior. Get a life.