Oath of the Goatwatch Spoilers

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Looks like the full spoiler is up/going up.

Is Pulse of Murasa as crazy as it seems? Get your best creature back from the graveyard at instant speed and gain 6 life seems really good to me. Maybe with all the exile effects it's not as good in this environment.

[The Martini]

Initial impressions of the full spoiler (from an inexperienced sealed/draft perspective):

The required colorless cards are going to require acting like you are splashing another color, or doing a monocolor + colorless theme, from the look of it.

There are quite a few cards that reference equipment. I don't know if any of it is super-good, except Commander's Claws, which looks awesome, especially if you can pull some Rally guys from your BFZ pack(s) (esp repeatable effects a la Kalastria Healer, Zulaport Cutthroat).

Blue was soooo good in BFZ. It's SOOOOO GOOOD (/teen girl squad) still!

The U/B, U/R, B/R devoid decks are still looking super viable. Some of the newer blue cards make the already great blue evasive/unblockable types even better.

I never got any sort of Ally deck to work in BFZ. Will it work in Goatwatch? Dunno - the cohort abilities all tend towards defensive as you want to leave up blockers and then use the cohort at the end of your opponent's turn, but do you want to be defensive when all of the huge Eldrazi are a thing? At least all of the humanoid creatures are now Allies.

Did green crawl back from being pretty abysmal? I don't have a good eye for these things. Will its ability to fix pands and get colorless (mostly through scions) be worth it?

Landfall didn't work that great in BFZ. Now it's REALLY not a thing, despite the Elven Super Twins kind of suggesting that approach.

[square1]

Oh wow, they totally are the Super Twins to the Super Friends planeswalkers.

As far as green, they have some decent quasi-removal now with Elemental Uprising and Nissa's Judgment. Green seems to be going big into the new Support mechanic, so GW swarm using Cohort for the late game might be a thing. Joraga Auxiliary is a pretty good payoff there. I'm not super into Support though just because it's so bad if you're behind.

There are some really good uncommons like Seed Guardian, but none of the green commons seem that amazing, which is what also killed it in BFZ. Stalking Drone seems pretty good in an Eldrazi aggro deck, while Tajuru Pathwarden is a solid top end ally who really benefits from Support. Pulse of Murasa seems pretty good, keeping you alive and gassed up in grindy games.

Unnatural Aggression was really disappointing coming off of Bear and Dragon punch and I'm a little disappointed they didn't give green a better common fight spell this set. Would have also liked to have seen a new fixing spell so green could be the core of the multi-color ally decks. I'd be really excited if something like Baloth Pup or Sylvan Advocate had been common.

[Kapol]

Taking a quick look, I still don't like cohort that much. Sure, you can do it at instant speed, and the second one can be summoning sick. But given there don't seem to be any vigilant cohort creatures (that I remember seeing), you're not attacking with at least two creatures, and many of them make bad blockers.

Support is looks like a middling to bad mechanic to me. I don't like mechanics that require you to have a good board presence to do anything. The fact that supports can't target themselves even once makes me feel much worse about them. It seems like a win-more mechanic to me.

I don't think that the equipment deck is normally going to pan out. There are five pieces of equipment in the entire set. The common one is pretty bad. Neither of the uncommon ones seen particularly amazing. Both of the rare one are good, but... rare. I don't think there was many, if any, good pieces of equipment in BFZ either. I don't think the W/R equipment deck is going to be very common. But when it's good, it might be insane.

With that in mind, here are my initial thoughts on each color in terms of limited play, from strongest to weakest:

* Blue
* Black (close to blue, might be over it)
* Red
* Green (close to red, might be over it)
* White (If I'm wrong on Support, Cohort, or even both of them, white gets a lot stronger)

One thing is that this format looks very defensive. There are a lot of creatures with big butts but little fists. I'm expecting long, grindy games here. Especially in sealed. As such, late-game bombs become a lot better to me. It's also possible that that will make cohort a lot better, as you won't want to be attacking anyways.

That said, those are my initial thoughts at least.

[Kapol]

On green:

I actually like green here. I think it has a good number of solid commons. I don't think it relies on support that much. Most of the support cards are on instants and sorceries, with only one 'overpriced' common that I can see. It has stuff like the 2/3 spider to deal with the many fliers. The one-sided uncommon fight looks really good to me. And it's commons seem fairly good. It's just too bad that it's still going to be held back by BFZ being around.

EDIT:

Also, I'm disappointed we only got one devoid white card.

[The Martini]

I don't think that the equipment deck is normally, if ever, going to pan out. There are three pieces of equipment in the entire set. The common one is pretty bad. The uncommon one is already, but expensive. The rare one is good, but... rare. It also doesn't help protect the equipped creature. I don't think there was many, if any, good pieces of equipment in BFZ either. I don't think the W/R equipment deck is going to be very common. But when it's good, it might be insane.

Though it doesn't make much difference to the outcome, there are 5 pieces.

Common: Bone Saw (it's a trap!, almost assuredly)
Uncommon: Chitinous Cloak (spendy but ok), Strider Harness (at least the equip cost is cheap?)
Rare: Captain's Claws (cheap and a good effect, assuming you can attack), Stoneforge Masterwork (I want to see this in a green Scion deck. Look, I have 7 creatures with type "Eldrazi"!)

Just seems odd that there are so many cards that reference equipment. Maybe we'll see more later this year.

I kind of agree with your position on white - really hoping that my prerelease or GP Van sealed pools are heavy white, because man would I rather build a black/red or blue-anything-else deck.

[Kapol]

You're right. I just figured that out and came to fix it.

I actually like Masterwork. Allies seem much more common in this set, so I think it'll be easier to get random value.

[Phi]

I think black might be better than blue this set (in limited). The removal is much better compared to the past few sets, and the creatures all seem solid or controlling in weird ways. U/B looks very interesting.

[Lycodrake]

Long time no chat, LRR MtG forumites.
I seriously want to make a deck based around Wall of Resurgence and Steppe Glider. Throw in Eldrazi Displacer, too and go from there - the three are my favorite cards from this set.
Maybe try a witty name about disappearing and reappearing lands?

[Kapol]

I really want to live the dream of Displacer, Brood Monitor, and Zulaport Cutthroat in limited.

[fantôme]

'Sup Lyco.

I really want to live the dream of Displacer, Brood Monitor, and Zulaport Cutthroat in limited.

You monster. You glorious beautiful monster.

But yeah, again I'm just not really digging this as a limited format. I think it's because I came into the game at Origins, where the draft archetypes were solid and obvious - I guess I got spoiled on that, as BFZ/OGW draft decks just seem like uncoordinated piles. (Or maybe I'm just bad at magic).

That being said, there are a tonne of interesting brewing potentials for constructed - so overall I'm hyped.

Also the flavour on Tears of Valakut is some of the most gorgeous I've ever seen. I almost don't even care what the card does, get in my decks.

[JackSlack]

But yeah, again I'm just not really digging this as a limited format. I think it's because I came into the game at Origins, where the draft archetypes were solid and obvious - I guess I got spoiled on that, as BFZ/OGW draft decks just seem like uncoordinated piles. (Or maybe I'm just bad at magic).

That being said, there are a tonne of interesting brewing potentials for constructed - so overall I'm hyped.

Neatly, you have had exactly the inverse experience of me: I've loved the limited of BFZ, finding the strategies clear and coherent and diverse, but the constructed for me has been lousy and done the job of making me basically give up on standard as a format.

[SixFootTurkey]

But yeah, again I'm just not really digging this as a limited format. I think it's because I came into the game at Origins, where the draft archetypes were solid and obvious - I guess I got spoiled on that, as BFZ/OGW draft decks just seem like uncoordinated piles. (Or maybe I'm just bad at magic).

I'd have to agree with JackSlack; Magic Origins was essentially drafted by picking the best two drop in the pack. BFZ is one of the most archetype dependent formats we've had in a while. (One of the main complaints with it, is that some people think it is _too_ linear.) The 'archetypes' in Magic Origins were largely traps.

Unless you mean specifically the OGW limited environment, to which I would say "tsk-tsk"; even professionals have difficulty discerning exactly how a format will turn out without playing it first.


Unrelated, I want to direct everyone's attention to the one mana cantrips. These aren't impressive on their own, but they may help enable a surge deck.

[RadioshackRaider]

I love Expedite. It's going to make me build Mono-Red tokens with Zada. With a perfect start, you draw seven on turn 5 and probably win. I might splash green for Swell of Growth so I can play all the land I rip from top of deck.

[fantôme]

BFZ is one of the most archetype dependent formats we've had on a while. The 'archetypes' in Magic Origins were largely traps.

Weirdly I've had the opposite experience on both counts. I've always drafted synergy over power, BFZ has been very poor whilst my experience (and results) from Origins was excellent. Inexplicable dichotomy.

[AdmiralMemo]

OGW is now up on Gatherer, as are all 311 ✧ erratas.

[SixFootTurkey]

BFZ is one of the most archetype dependent formats we've had on a while. The 'archetypes' in Magic Origins were largely traps.

Weirdly I've had the opposite experience on both counts. I've always drafted synergy over power, BFZ has been very poor whilst my experience (and results) from Origins was excellent. Inexplicable dichotomy.

A synergy deck being linear does not mean it is easy to draft. It means when things don't go right, they go horrible. A Magic Origins deck, on the other hand, would work just fine by having solid two drops with a combat trick and some removal to back it up. Origins was far more forgiving if you locked onto the wrong color, and didn't really care about 'powerful' cards as the format was too fast for late game cards in most cases.

[Kapol]

I just realized Fall of the Titans is a rare. I thought it was a mythic. That's absurd. And, honestly, it almost makes me not want to play 2HG.