Good morning! I know that this is a small UA-cam channel, but I just really wanted to say thank you for taking the time to go over these the decks and such detail. I have been playing casual magic gathering with friends and eventually my wife since I was about 13 years old Over the years, I unintentionally collected a lot of cards from this set. I have since sold off a majority of my collection and focused on maintaining some commander decks, but wanted to collect the sets because of the nostalgia that they bring me as most people are aware, this was heavily neutered after the Urza releases , however, it is near to my heart for the artwork, the story, and the opportunity to really have a standalone universe/plane for a story to take place in. I appreciate you sharing what you have shared and just wanted to login and express that gratitude.
Thanks buddy, I'm happy you appreciate the videos. My whole plan was to relive some fun memories and give some well-deserved love and attention to these products that got so many of us into this hobby!
9:50 legitimately hurt my eyes for a second, because I had been seeing so many black cards, the sudden shock of red was like, "oh shit! this deck was black/red, wasn't it?!" Fucking Mountain jumpscare.
While the weak, weird and singleton creature selection definitely lets the deck down, I think this is still my favourite deck of the set. The discard, land destruction and removal does make up for it. While not going all in on one of these aspects, there’s enough of each and they do come together to be quite disruptive. I suspect they may have actually weakened/changed the creatures as a way of balancing the deck: because why wouldn’t you have 3 copies of the very on theme, common, alley grifters otherwise? Or a stronger Mercenery sub theme? Definitely plays better than it looks, and probably just slightly edges out the rebel deck in power. Wall of Distortion I want to single out as actually being pretty solid in a precon or school corridor “pile” environment. Repeatable discard when you wanted it, and/or had the mana, and could deal with enough of the creatures we played: kills 2/1 and 1/1s, doesn’t die to 2/2s. And if you are blowing up their lands and/or making them discard their big expensive creatures… The Cateran overlord was definitely a bit of a whispered legend at my school. Not sure if anyone actually had one though. Certainly an iconic card from the block. But then this wasn’t supposed to be a Mercenary deck, so I don’t think this was the place for it. But the choice to leave the Mercenery deck to Nemesis - I don’t think they wanted two mono coloured decks from the same set - meant that a Masques rare wasn’t an option there. Pestilence worm, even though it did kill a lot of your creatures, was a fun rare: we were impressed at the time. The stone rain spellshaper should have been the other: it’s power and unfunness of repeatable land destruction would have been kept in check by newer player’s natural aversion to discarding our own cards!
I agree that the deck is too unfocused and could do with more consistency especially with its creatures. But I think you're being too harsh on the creatures of the era, as it sounds like you're judging them based on current creature power levels. Creatures before 2006 (before OG Ravnica) were overall smaller and had more drawbacks and I think they should be judged according to the set rather than based on current power levels. Also, Enslaved Horror isn't as bad as it looks. If it's played on curve or even on turn 2 through dark ritual, it's unlikely your opponent(s) will have any creatures in their graveyards and the horror will probably be the biggest creature on the board for most of the game. If you're running any graveyard removal alongside the horror, the horror is even better. Put it this way - exhume has the same "drawback" but is often amazing if played correctly when your opponents have no creatures and you buried one in the graveyard early, but exhume is terrible if you wait for your opponent to have a stocked graveyard. Enslaved horror has a much lower ceiling as its body will always be a generic 4/4, but its drawback is similarly manageable.
Good morning! I know that this is a small UA-cam channel, but I just really wanted to say thank you for taking the time to go over these the decks and such detail. I have been playing casual magic gathering with friends and eventually my wife since I was about 13 years old Over the years, I unintentionally collected a lot of cards from this set. I have since sold off a majority of my collection and focused on maintaining some commander decks, but wanted to collect the sets because of the nostalgia that they bring me as most people are aware, this was heavily neutered after the Urza releases , however, it is near to my heart for the artwork, the story, and the opportunity to really have a standalone universe/plane for a story to take place in. I appreciate you sharing what you have shared and just wanted to login and express that gratitude.
Thanks buddy, I'm happy you appreciate the videos. My whole plan was to relive some fun memories and give some well-deserved love and attention to these products that got so many of us into this hobby!
9:50 legitimately hurt my eyes for a second, because I had been seeing so many black cards, the sudden shock of red was like, "oh shit! this deck was black/red, wasn't it?!" Fucking Mountain jumpscare.
Dang this deck includes Snuff out!?
I had this precon!
While the weak, weird and singleton creature selection definitely lets the deck down, I think this is still my favourite deck of the set. The discard, land destruction and removal does make up for it. While not going all in on one of these aspects, there’s enough of each and they do come together to be quite disruptive. I suspect they may have actually weakened/changed the creatures as a way of balancing the deck: because why wouldn’t you have 3 copies of the very on theme, common, alley grifters otherwise? Or a stronger Mercenery sub theme? Definitely plays better than it looks, and probably just slightly edges out the rebel deck in power.
Wall of Distortion I want to single out as actually being pretty solid in a precon or school corridor “pile” environment. Repeatable discard when you wanted it, and/or had the mana, and could deal with enough of the creatures we played: kills 2/1 and 1/1s, doesn’t die to 2/2s. And if you are blowing up their lands and/or making them discard their big expensive creatures…
The Cateran overlord was definitely a bit of a whispered legend at my school. Not sure if anyone actually had one though. Certainly an iconic card from the block. But then this wasn’t supposed to be a Mercenary deck, so I don’t think this was the place for it. But the choice to leave the Mercenery deck to Nemesis - I don’t think they wanted two mono coloured decks from the same set - meant that a Masques rare wasn’t an option there.
Pestilence worm, even though it did kill a lot of your creatures, was a fun rare: we were impressed at the time. The stone rain spellshaper should have been the other: it’s power and unfunness of repeatable land destruction would have been kept in check by newer player’s natural aversion to discarding our own cards!
I always thought it odd they didn't make a mercenary precon in the Mercadian Masques.
Oh don't worry, there's one on the way in the next block! But be careful what you wish for...
@@Triceratopping I remember that one I thought it was in Prophecy so when I looked it up aty least I got the pleasant surprise of it being in Nemesis.
I think this was down to having the mono white rebel deck: they didn’t want to do mono black at the same time, so it got pushed back to Nemesis.
@@beatsandskiesmtg That probably makes the most sense.
I agree that the deck is too unfocused and could do with more consistency especially with its creatures. But I think you're being too harsh on the creatures of the era, as it sounds like you're judging them based on current creature power levels. Creatures before 2006 (before OG Ravnica) were overall smaller and had more drawbacks and I think they should be judged according to the set rather than based on current power levels.
Also, Enslaved Horror isn't as bad as it looks. If it's played on curve or even on turn 2 through dark ritual, it's unlikely your opponent(s) will have any creatures in their graveyards and the horror will probably be the biggest creature on the board for most of the game. If you're running any graveyard removal alongside the horror, the horror is even better.
Put it this way - exhume has the same "drawback" but is often amazing if played correctly when your opponents have no creatures and you buried one in the graveyard early, but exhume is terrible if you wait for your opponent to have a stocked graveyard. Enslaved horror has a much lower ceiling as its body will always be a generic 4/4, but its drawback is similarly manageable.