Too slow for maindecks but big and scary in the sideboard of some decks. If you're some crazy madness deck with lots of discard, Archfiend can shred creature decks.
An inconspicuous sideboard card. I consider Marsh Casualties and Zealous Persecution very playable cards. This is one mana less, that's huge! Although it doesn't kill True-Name Nemesis like the others do. This card is somewhere in the Forked Bolt range, a card which I've seen cast to great effect many times.
Yeah I'd call this playable, just. Either way it's mana-inefficient but you need removal when you need removal. Highlander has an interesting dilemma: you need removal for the few super busted permanents (Time Vault, Vedalken Shackles, Moat, Skullclamp, etc), otherwise you just want threats so that you don't brick against blue control decks and creatureless combo decks. Cast Out is passable in both situations. Exile is also pretty nice.
The plethora of decent cycling cards from this set gives a miracle themed deck a few more playables. Also good for delirium and Emrakul, the Promised End.
Best counterspell we've seen since...Spell Pierce? "unless its controller pays 1" cards are so funny. Feels so dirty on both sides when they work.
This one's a bit of a stretch but I honestly would play it in my colourless beatdown deck. When you're playing ~24 unique colourless lands, you'd be surprised how deep you need to go.
In my opinion Zombies are still far from a playable tribe.
It think this card is playable in all midrange decks. If people can spend mana on Sensei's Divining Top and other cantrips and still not fall too far behind on tempo, that's an indicator that the format allows doing 'nothing' with one mana here and there. If he was a 3/3 I'd say no but 4/4 is good enough in my opinion.
If you're playing some delve or miracle cards, Sphinx gets a little better.
There might be a wacky Living End deck which could play this.
Only playable in Living End I think.
Goes in the madness deck or even the Living End deck which I apparently think is a thing.
If you've laid out your weenie deck and almost all your dudes happen to be ≤2 power, then this is a great sideboard card.
If you're green and low on artifact removal, I think this is solid. You just gotta have answers for Time Vault/Vedalken Shackles/Jitte/Skullclamp.
Excellent aggro card. You will need sufficient removal for their blockers though.
First let me say that I am also one of the many players sick of Gatewatch planeswalker cards. I'm particularly sick of how all the cards with the same planeswalker type get diluted with each printing of that character. Each of the Gatewatch members are no longer cards. Having said that I think the story articles on the mothership are awesome and I look forward to them every week.
This is a particularly interesting Gideon.
That first ability is more of a control ability. If you were playing GotT in an aggro deck, the creature you target can still block provided that it can block one of your attackers and not die. In that context Gideon is a very bad removal spell.
In that same context, you also can't attack if they have a second big creature, since the creature you didn't target can counterattack Gideon next turn. If your opponent has multiple creatures you kind of need to hold back blockers to keep Gideon alive and that is not in an aggro deck's plan. Aggro deck's creatures typically don't block well, Steppe Lynx for example.
If you don't expect many creatures from the average opponent and you're playing some creature removal, then Gideon is still maindeckable in aggro decks. But all things considered, I see Gideon as more of a control card. He plays Icy Manipulator, then you sweep and he switches to killing the opponent or their planeswalker.
Against decks without many creatures, Gideon is just a great beater and therefore a decent sideboard card.
Against some combo decks, Gideon is an excellent hate bear. Any deck trying to kill you with Tendrils of Agony is going to have issues with this latest Gideon.
Last ability also sweet with Ad Nauseum and Pacts.
UG Nissa seems awesome. She requires a heavy build restriction but the power is there. You obviously want to be really creature heavy and you want all your creatures to be good defensively so that they can protect Nissa.
Library manipulation works well with her, Sensei's Divining Top plus fetchlands is a classic. Brainstorm too. Courser of Kruphix works nicely as well.
Planeswalkers with a +2 loyalty ability are frustrating hard to kill. In a way Nissa can act like a removal spell for a two-power creature.
UG Nissa could work well in a weird burn deck. Imagine casting her for four mana then using your burn spells to kill their guys; in a couple turns you've got ten damage for four mana.
Great in the enchantress deck. Can hose some combo decks similarly to Nevermore.
A very solid dude. In a race situation, this guy is as fast as a 4/4. Weak against Liliana, the Last Hope but you're unlikely to face her.
Yet another five-cost four-power haste dragon. I think this comes second to Stormbreath Dragon in that category but still good.
Play some discard and hatebears to ensure you don't get combo'd out and let the dragons do the rest.
Hits a bunch of things in Highlander, most notably: fetchlands, Sensei's Divining Top, Flash/Hulk and Time Vault.
Only in Boros aggro. Only reason you'd not go Naya would be to use Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon.
In addition to Reclamation Sage. Better than Reclamation Sage against the big artifact decks which play Myr Battlesphere and such.
I play Coercive Portal in the sideboard of my Mishra's Workshop deck and it's great. Oracle's Vault is similar enough that I think it's playable.
Note that Oracle's Vault says "play" rather than "cast", therefore it works with lands. At times, Contagion Clasp and Contagion Engine have made it into my Workshop Deck, their proliferate abilities would be sweet with this.
This card gets better the lower your curve is. You really want to play the card you drew for the turn AND the card you exile off Oracles Vault.
Because the ability says "exile", be wary of activating it if there's a chance you will flip a critical combo piece that you can't afford to cast.
What a difference cycling can make to really situational cards. I think this is maindeckable. It's in the same realm as Slice and Dice and Starstorm. Slice and Dice is totally underplayed by the way.
Playable in the aggro affinity deck. I'm imagining Phyrexian Walker, Ornithopter, Memnite and Court Homunculus bashing in turn two and then late game all the creature lands getting in on the action. I'm playing one in my Modern affinity deck. Gonna be siiiick.
Could also be good in a stompy deck with lots of mana creatures.
Spicy. Ever read DUNE? (The original Pokahontas Avatar)
If these didn't have land types they'd be unplayable. The land types make them good in decks which care about having lots of a certain land type. I'm thinking Scapeshift, High Tide, Lashwrithe, Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary etc.
There's a pretty sweet Collected Company deck going on here.
"Hmmmm interesting, the Royal Vizier. That would be...me"
Infinite with Time Vault. Also untaps Gaea's Cradle and Tolarian Academy, which could be a thing.
"It's a world class menagerie! Prince Ali. Fabulous he. Ali Ababwaaaaaa"
Could be good in Elves where your whole deck is dudes and you have heaps of mana.
OK! That concludes the playable section. Amonkhet has lots of fringe playables, no really big standouts. I'm gonna say the best two cards for Highlander are Censor and Gideon of the Trials.
With so many fringe playables, there are of course those which I feel fall just short. I wanted to mention them:
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Parallel Lives hasn't been a thing in Highlander yet. Maybe Anointed Procession is that one extra effect to push it into playability? But really, combo decks can be killing you on turn four, as can aggro decks. This just seems too slow. Unless there is some ≤3cmc enchantment which you can sac to produce a few big hasty threats, then yeah, too slow. Zektar Shrine Expedition? Saproling Burst?
Sweet that this lets you cast the Time Spiral (expansion) cycle of 'no mana cost' cards: Ancestral Visions, Wheel of Fate, Restore Balance, Living End and Hypergenesis. Unfortunately that's not enough to make this card playable in Highlander and all those cards require very specific and not necessarily mutual strategies.
I would've had this in the 'playables' section had this not been a sorcery. Time Vault and equipment really require instant speed to counteract.
"Indestructible", that's what we're interested in. We already have Darksteel Citadel and Flagstones of Trokair. Perhaps eventually there'll be enough indestructible lands to make a dedicated Armageddon/Ravages of War/Burning of Xinye/Boom // Bust deck.
If you're non-interactive you need to be able to kill by turn four, otherwise aggro decks and combo decks will kill you first. In four turns you have ten mana. They'll draw a minimum four cards, probably more since they'll be fetching. You need to mill an average of more than five cards per mana....Compelling Argument does not do this.
More like KefNOT. Maybe, MAYBE a sideboard card for control mirrors, similar to Keranos.
I've played Loxodon Smiter a lot and been very impressed with it. Unfortunately for serpopards everywhere, that one less toughness makes a huge difference. Lightning Bolt, Anger of the Gods, Kitchen Finks, Wild Nacatl, all very popular cards.
Making the rest of your dudes uncounterable is probably worse than not having the hilarious discard-cast clause of Loxodon Smiter.
I was (and still am) quite high on Saskia the Unyielding, who is one mana less. That's the difference between Jace, the Mindsculptor and Jace, Unraveler of Secrets. Admittedly I built Zoo and neglected to add Saskia, so if she isn't getting a spot, then Samut hasn't got much of a chance. But cummon! Look at all those keywords! Perhaps she's good enough. Flash is quite nice in Highlander since counterspells are so good.
Matt Sperling is an entertainer for sure. Watch this from 5:40
Haha! I think I actually got this set review out at a reasonable time. Before the next big Highlander event at least, which is probably Eternal Masters at Next Level Games Dandenong on Monday 12th of June. If you're in Melbourne there's a small Highlander at Next Level Games Ringwood Sunday 14th May and another on Saturday 20th May at General Games. General Games is a great store with player-staff, check'em out if you're local. I'll definitely be at the General Games event.
In a couple weeks the new set comes out!...so it's time for my Aether Revolt Highlander Set Review!!! or A.R.H.S.R. A little Easter treat for you.
Awwright, here we go.
Is this thing a Felidar or is Felidar what it's guarding? Guess we'll never know. All I know is that these are found hunting solo or in packs of 2, 3, 4 or 59 trillion billion. Saheeli Rai...yep, she did feature in my Kaladesh set review (I am so smert), she's been hanging out with this cat beast A LOT. I've yet to see the duo translate into the Highlander landscape but surely someone's tried? Canberra?
But yeah, there are infinite good "ETB" (enters the battlefield) effects which Saheeli and her feline friend can exploit, whilst they're not in each other's company. Ideally you want these ETB triggers to be on two or less costing creatures so that both Saheeli and Felidar Guardian can curve after them; Stoneforge Mystic...Baleful Strix (but then you're black)...ok, not much at cmc 2; wayyyy more at cmc 3:
I feel like players don't appreciate how good revolt is in fetch land formats.
Most of the time Renegade Rallier will get back a fetchland, which is already great. Getting back powerful two-drops is awesome.
I love building Skullclamp decks because I'm obsessed and want to fuel the "Clamp sucks Vs. Clamp is broken" feud between the Highlander nations of Canberra and Melbourne (Skullclamp is mindboggling absurd broken by the way). Anyway, Rallier is a precious way of getting Skullclamp back from the graveyard. Skullclamp decks tend to lean on it quite heavily. They also tend to play Birthing Pod and Green Sun's Zenith BOTH of which tutor for Rallier. We always had the aforementioned Eternal Witness but her power/toughness body was never impressive, although Terese Neilsen's depiction of her suggests she would have an amazing body if all our cards came to life.
So yeah, Renegade Rallier also gets back other things, like Saffi Eriksdotter, again and again and again, provided you have a sac outlet, preferably one which wins you the game when you can do it infinite times, e.g. Viscera Seer.
Riding my Standard segway, this card is also good with Felidar Guardian and all dem other Blinky Bill cards. Oh, I forgot to mention Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker is good with Felidar Guardian.
Rogue Refiner is just a decent bit of value. If your deck needs a little meat and you're looking to dig for your power pointed cards or combo, then Rogue Refiner is your man.
Another three-drop which likes a good blinking. Trinket Mage has a set the precedent.
Every three-cost artifact in magical existence as potential tutor targets. Think Ensnaring Bridge, think Basalt Monolith (with Mesmeric Orb). Think every Sword of X & Y. Crucible of Worlds. Shardless Agent...
What is she holding by the way? A metal lacrosse stick? Certainly not a trophy.
Trophy Mage could technically tutor for this card but I wouldn't put them in the same deck. I'd want this in an Affinity style deck with a healthy curve and a few sac outlets. The dream is having Arcbound Ravager, saccing a five-drop to get back Frogmite, casting Froggy for free, saccing Froggy to get back...I dunno, some sweet three cost artifact and then more saccy saccy and playing of zero-cost things with death triggers and charge counters everywhere.
Scrap Trawler is great in Mishra's Workshop beatdown decks and weird Time Vault beatdown hybrid decks. It's stupid that Time Vault beatdown is a thing by the way. Time Vault in my opinion, has way too low of an opportunity cost.
Speaking of cards which could go in Affinity. Affinity's mana is actually quite tricky cause you want to play lands like Mishra's Factory, Blinkmoth Nexus and mono-colour producing artifact lands but you also need access to Esper colours to get enough powerful artifact synergy aggro cards. Spire goes a ways to remedying that.
I feel like this card has potential. I did a Gatherer search to find some kind of enchantment which reads "whenever a creature enters the battlefield, return an artifact you control to your hand" and a few variations of that effect. I couldn't find anything. Wizards are getting better at not effecting infinite combos on old formats...certainly not new formats though (Felidar Guardian + Saheeli Rai; it still baffles me that they missed that), so they may not ever print the second half of 'infinite thopters' combo, but maybe.
You could jamb this in the sideboard of the Affinity deck which has a bunch of cheap artifacts. It's too slow against aggro and combo to maindeck. Sweet with Glint Hawk, Kor Skyfisher and cards of that effect. Paradoxical Outcome is another one.
Not just a nifty artifact creature for Affinity aggro, also plays as Xantid Swarm in combo deck sideboards.
Artifact control/prison decks. Best in Tinker variants, because he helps ramp out drawn Tinker targets.
Should've been called 'Tezzeret, the Florist', since he makes petals. His hand could easily be altered into a Lotus.
Like all the artifact strategy cards so far, this is not powerful enough to build a deck around but it is another card that you would chuck into any UB artifact aggro deck.
To get the most out of Tezzeret's Touch you want plenty of <3 cmc artifacts. If they're already artifact creatures with evasion, then that's even better, like Vault Skirge for example. Artifacts with ETB triggers are also nice since if they're touched, they're more likely to end up back in your hand. Ichor Wellspring is the dream but that card's so bad without a way to sac it.
More artifact goodness. Very versatile and ballistic. Combos with Arcbound Ravager. Is an alternate kill condition for the Hermit Druid combo deck (The Mimeoplasm exiling Lord of Extinction and Walking Ballista rather than Lord of Extinction and Murderous Redcap). I'm invested in the Hermit Druid applications cause that deck is my baby. Do you reckon if I maindecked Walking Ballista as a win condition that opponents would sideboard in Null Rod and Stony Silence? Cause that would be sweet when I switch to Murderous Redcap post-board; probably too deep. Plus, if I use Walking Ballista for the same cmc as Murderous Redcap to kill a Deathrite Shaman, then they can exile my Walking Ballista before the Deathrite dies, neutering my combo, which wouldn't happen with Redcap.
This one doesn't go in artifact decks. This one goes in the 'Fling plus zero cost ability' deck. That's a six mana kill, which is probably too slow but hey, always good to be aware it exists in case something weird breaks it. There are many many functionally equivalent Flings and just as many zero-to-activate abilities. I've always wanted to play Ceaseless Searblades with Lavaclaw Reaches and Wandering Fumarole. Crackdown Construct is just better.
Possibly the best Aether Revolt card as far as Highlander's concerned. Finds Time Vault and Voltaic Key, that's enough to make it busted.
Goes in the Hypergenesis deck. That deck is bad but it can still get you. In fact, that deck probably got a lot better with the rules update of split cards. Now it can actually play cheap spells. Hmmm I will have to consult the oracle (Brett Hughes) and return with answers.
Speaking of cards which have been effected by the split card cmc rules update.
This expertise is probably still good in the 'expertise abuse' deck. You cast it a turn later but it's effect should regain enough tempo to keep you safe.
Baral's Expertise also has applications in the Tolarian Academy combo deck. If your Academy taps for seven mana (a big ask) and you have Eternal Witness and Candelabra of Tawnos, that's infinite.
Another Academy Assistant. This time it's Cloud of Faeries which is untapping the Academy. This one even draws your deck so it kills with one less piece but is less versatile than Baral's Expertise.
This thing was operating when Donald Trump got elected.
and of course you can always just untap Time Vault like the chump you are.
Storm? I really gotta play storm one day, just to understand it as a points committee member. I'm guessing this doesn't make it into storm due to not reducing the costs of eggs or spells with no generic mana in their cost.
Apart from storm, Baral seems like a shoe-in for any heavy instant sorcery deck. Who cares if he turns on the opponent's creature removal, he only costs two mana and you're probably already running Jace, Vryn's Prodigy for the same reasons. If he lives, party-time-win-the-game, if he dies, they got one a mana up on you, no big deal.
The shenanigans continue. You could have Emrakul be the only card with supertype 'Creature' or 'Artifact' in your deck. However it's probably better to have a two card combo that wins the game. There are a couple risks here: Your opponent could remove one of your targets in response. You may also have drawn one of the creatures you want to flip into. You could get around the second weakness by playing lots of cards which put cards from your hand back into your deck but Brainstorm is the only good one, the rest are very inefficient. Another way of getting around drawing your creatures is to play redundant huge game winning fatties; you know, Iona, Emrakul, Elesh Norn, Griselbrand, etc. Indomitable Creativity is quite difficult to tutor for so you'll want other similar effects to increase the consistency of the deck. Madcap Experiment, Shape Anew, Polymorph, that kind of thing.
Then of course you need to play a bunch of creature makers which aren't creatures or artifacts themselves, e.g. creature lands and token makers.
Man this card's insane. Zoo got yet another sweet beater here. The evasion and resistance to sweepers make it infuriating to play against. Even though I think this card is too powerful to be a healthy card for magic, I do like how it weakens planeswalkers, which wizards continue to push.
I like how Heart has a significant deck building cost. To get the most out of it, you want to be dropping a three-power creature or planeswalker each turn.
Heart crews nicely with exalted creatures but there aren't many of those.
Each artifact themed block adds more powerful artifacts to the pool and main deck artifact answers become more and more relevant. I'm not sure if we're at the point of maindeck Nature's Claim but we're getting there.
Another beater. Definitely not as good as Heart of Kiran but she is playable, especially in mono-red where there are less options.
There is a sweet Bloodghast + Goblin Bombardment aggro deck, saccing Ragavan each combat is cute. Monkey bombardment.
Also good in 'Wide Zoo' with Burning-Tree Emissary. In Highlander there are so many creatures which are all about the same power level but there are only so many slots and so some creatures don't see the light of day. Once you add restrictive cards like Hidden Herbalists, priorities change and 'almost there' cards can actually get played. In this case, Experiment One might become better than Kird Ape because you have a chance of getting it to three-power on turn two. Also, slightly less powerful creatures can get played since they can be cast for GG.
Castable in wake of Hidden Herbalist. In a format full of fetch lands this is just a good card, like a middle Tarmogoyf.
If there's an elf beatdown deck, this would surely be in it.
I feel like all the revolt cards aren't getting the attention they deserve due to the lack of fetch lands in Standard.
This is the exception. Push is most certainly getting the attention it deserves. I said earlier that Whir of Invention was possibly the best Aether Revolt card, I forgot about this little beauty.
I can't believe I never thought about this but he's not exactly 'pushing' the dude off the balcony. More of a '300 kick':
and if you have revolt...upgrade to this:
Another great revolt card. You can play this in any non-combo deck with nine or more fetches. If you want to up the consistency of revolt, consider Wasteland, Stripmine or even Mishra's Bauble and Urza's Bauble if you're also try to accomplish delirium a la Modern Death's Shadow.
Flametongue Kavu eat your heart out. This is another generally amazing card. I forgot this one when talking about sweet blink effects for Felidar Guardian and Saheeli Rai.
Skinrender and Flametongue Kavu were always kept out of maindecks due to the 'must' clause of their abilities. They need to target themselves on an open board. Vengeful Rebel doesn't have that problem.
I can see this in sideboards against control decks, which lack blockers and ways to deal with Enchantments, e.g. the blue moon control decks.
The tokens come online a turn earlier than Bitterblossom and there's no life loss but obviously you're relying on a steady stream of fetch lands to keep the servos coming. Like the other revolt cards, you'll probably want to tweak your deck to include a few more revolt enablers.
This one needs a lot of work but there are rewards to be had. Sensei's Divining Top is your best friend here. Not only does it ensure that you will hit every time, it also lets you set up some big hits as they appear in the top three cards in your library.
Without Sensei's Top, you can still set up some good hits. There are lots of tutors which put a card on top. That card could be Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. Tutors which are permanents themselves: The Harbinger series from Lorwyn, Liliana Vess, Mwonvuli Beast Tracker and Conduit of Ruin to name a few.
Cast Channel, cast Planar Bridge, activate it, get Lich's Mirror, then probably win. You will certainly win if you draw the Bridge again in your new seven cards.
Great in Elves or even just a deck with lots of cheap dudes and mana sinks. Especially good with Nettle Sentinel.
Sweet with Winding Constrictor and Kitchen Finks. Or even better, Murderous Redcap and a sac outlet. Also just good as a lord in Goblins or Elves.
Some Studio Gibli sky pirate action going on here.
Would be sweet to get a +1/+1 counter on a Gideon and get double counter addition happening.
The natural thought with this card is "sweet, get my planeswalker to ultimate super fast" but Skyship Plunderer is very bad at defending your planeswalker.
Don't get me wrong, Plunderer is still good with planeswalkers but that should be a side bonus to his decent 2/1 flying stats and generally aggro nature.
There are a lot of Oblivion Rings these days. Generally Oblivion Rings are too inefficient but in the enchantress deck, they're awesome.
If you can cast it, excellent, get it in there. Any deck non-combo deck which can produce BB on turn two should be playing this guy.
What kind of deck plays lots of artifacts you don't want to tap? Cause in that kind of deck, this is awesome. Let's list some artifacts which don't tap: equipment, Spellskite, Ruby Medallion and all the other medallions...Heart of Kiran, clue tokens, Engineered Explosives, Pithing Needle. There's enough there for a deck and I'm sure there's more.
Anyway, I hope you found this set review inspiring. Next big Highlander Tournament coming up is Eternal Masters at Next Level Games Dandenong on the 12th of June. Most people will be practicing for the team limited GP in Sydney a couple weeks after but there's some awesome prizes to be had at Eternal Masters if you're willing to put the effort in.
This article addresses the largest point of
contention from the facebook discussion which occurred leading up to the Aether
Revolt points changes. The point of contention is whether Back to Basics, Blood
Moon and Magus of the Moon should collectively be given a point.
I went through
the thread and counted the number of unique people on both sides of the
arguement, including the unique 'likes' (metadata in full swing! :P). Both
sides were large enough that the contention is worth addressing.
THE SITUATION
Non-basic
lands are unavoidable in Highlander. The more value/dual lands you play, the higher the
average power of your cards, and there isn't enough non-basic hate to punish
you often enough to stop playing them. This gives B2B/Moons a 'keep
them honest' effect on the format. Cramming your deck full of non-basics is a
little like jaywalking; it gives you an edge over fellow pedestrians but if you
don't look for cops (Blood Moon and Back to Basics) down the street (metagame), you might get fined.
The effect
that B2B/Moons have when cast range from 'nothing' to 'cripples the opponent's
mana'. The later outcome makes B2B/Moons powerful and has put them in the
points spotlight. The former is often overlooked and can lose the game for the
B2B/Moon player. How often these two extremes happen, depends on people's
willingness to play around them. There is
also everything in between. In that middle ground, the B2B/Moon needs
to do a lot of work to overcome its cost: a card, three mana and a lower power
deck in general from playing two colours instead of 3, 4 or 5.
B2B and
Blood Moon are also difficult to tutor for compared to creatures, lands and
artifacts. This means that building your deck around them is a far greater cost
because you see your pay-off cards much less often. Magus of the Moon is easy to
tutor but also easy to kill.
HOW FAR DO PLAYERS NEED TO GO TO PLAY
AROUND B2B/MOON?
When I asked myself this question, the first thing I did was create a rough table of Highlander mana bases. It really showcases how crazy good fetchlands are (too good imo). Keep in mind that I assumed a minimum of one basic land for each colour and two basics for each colour with double costs:
Not sure how clear that table is going to turn out on everyone's screens...it doesn't really matter. I just thought it was cool.
I know my land count preference is a lot higher than other people. I've assumed a minimum 25 land deck in the table. Things aren't that simple, obviously, e.g. I consider Preordain a land if I already have enough blue sources. I also think those >26 land decks in the table are at risk of flood unless they have lots of mana sinks.
How much to play around B2B/Moon is all about percentages. You just gotta pick a percentage that you're happy with. Here are some thoughts to consider, hopefully they help you identify your percentage:
The odds
that your opponent has a Blood Moon or Magus of the Moon in play on turn three
is about ~29% (using this calculator).
If you're playing four fetches and a basic of a colour, you have a ~59% chance
of access to a basic of that colour before a moon rises; ~34% chance of
getting two different colours and ~20% chance of having three colours. These
are all rough number of course, since play/draw is a factor, as are cantrips and
fetches which find two basics you want.
In general
you can say that you're likely to get two different coloured basics before the
moon rises and if the other colour you're playing is red, then you have access
to three of your colours. The more basics you play, the higher your percentages.
Back to
Basics is a different and typically stronger effect than Moon despite retroactive fetch lands still working. To progress your game against B2B you'll need basics/non-land sources equal to the CMC of your spells,
rather than just one of each colour. The lower your curve, the better against B2B.
My take is that non-red
three colour decks with mana creatures or mana rocks are good against B2B/Moon.
Three colour red decks are also fine. It's the four and five colour decks which can
have issues.
When you've
finished your match, walk around the room and watch some other matches.
Highlander is not only fun to watch but you can also identify which players are
on B2B/Moons. Those decks are relatively slow, so there's a decent chance
they're still playing. If you face them you'll know to fetch basics game one.
After game one, if you demonstrated that B2B/Moon does nothing against you and you see them siding out a significant number of cards, you can assume that they're boarding out B2B/Moons. This gives you the luxury of fetching more aggressively for dual lands game two. Beware of them bringing B2B/Moons back in game three though.
WASTELAND IS DIFFERENT
Wasteland is
a non-basic hate card which is pointed, that's a precedent. However, Wasteland
does not put the heavy restrictions on its player that B2B and Moons do. It can also screw opponents as early as turn one, giving them less time to resolve
mana creatures and mana rocks, e.g. Signets.
Counterspells,
removal and discard also do not work against Wasteland like they do B2B/Moons.
OTHER SMALL DOWNSIDES TO B2B/MOONS
Strongly pulls the player to only UR. Therefore low on answers to enchantments and high toughness or hexproof creatures.
B2B often locks down its own Volcanic Island.
B2B, Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon stack poorly when drawn in multiples.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN B2B/MOONS AND POINTED CARDS
Looking at pointed cards on the list, almost all these are good no matter what the opponent
is doing. Oath of Druids is the exception to this but a two mana Griselbrand on turn three is much stronger than locking down a couple lands turn three for three mana.
ARE THEY GOOD FOR THE FORMAT?
What's
important is enjoyment. Being locked under a B2B/Moon is not fun but you chose
to be weak to those cards; Similar to a creature deck with no fliers or enchantment
removal trapped behind a Moat. B2B/Moons create decisions during deck
construction and play; The tension between fetching for the 'best mana' verses
playing around B2B/Moon is good because
it creates dynamics and decisions, which is interesting (compared to everyone playing a minimum three colours with lots of doubles).
B2B/Moons
create natural rotation, which is great for any eternal format:
MY CONCLUSION
B2B/Moons
can be played around without restricting people's deck options too much.
B2B/Moons are only powerful when not played around. B2B/Moons create rotation, which is good for the format.
