New baral seems a little anemic.

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Gormhaus
Gormhaus Posts: 190 Tile Toppler
in MtGPQ General Discussion
And by a little a mean REALLY anemic. It seems that if a card shares synergy with a creature its ok. But if it shares synergy wirh a spell it is inconvenient.

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  • Steeme
    Steeme Posts: 784 Critical Contributor
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    Oh?  I actually use him in more decks now than before.  He is no longer a one-trick pony breezing through cheap spells ad-infinitum.

    I agree he is no longer the center of attention.  But that is actually what makes him powerful.  I find the AI targeting my other creatures while I happily gain 5 mana to all spells every turn.

  • wereotter
    wereotter Posts: 2,064 Chairperson of the Boards
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    I find him to be a lot more fun and interesting now than he was before the nerf. Before I got bored of him pretty quickly, but now I've brought him back out and actually enjoy his synergy with my spells. Makes a lot of good, but expensive spells a lot more manageable to play. 
  • Dologan
    Dologan Posts: 145 Tile Toppler
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    While I do miss his ability to charge up spells when the enters the board and wish they would have kept it, I actually find him generally better and more useful in other decks. The whole looping shtick got boring and annoying really quick, even when playing it yourself.
  • Rogan_Josh
    Rogan_Josh Posts: 140 Tile Toppler
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    I really like the new Baral. If they released him like this from the start i'd have still paid for the card. It's a great addition to plenty of decks and I'd say probably in my top 10 of mystics. For 8 mana the amount of advantage you can squeeze out of him is crazy. 
  • DuskPaladin
    DuskPaladin Posts: 123 Tile Toppler
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    Funny to see arguably the best creature in the whole game be called anemic.
  • madwren
    madwren Posts: 2,237 Chairperson of the Boards
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    shteev said:
    Well, clearly a guy who can only generate 28 mana a turn is going to be a lot worse than one who can generate well over 100.

    His problem now is that he competes with another clearly broken card: Startled Awake. You're generally better off getting something broken right now than something REALLY broken in a few turns time, and SA can accelerate into other broken stuff like Deploy and BTB.

    I agree. I prefer SA because I prefer burst mana  However, new Baral is fantastic in allowing you to dedicate gem matches to threats or immediate needs while still filling your removal and board control spells in the background.  Instead of being something of a one-trick pony, Baral now he has some strategy and versatility involved. It's great.

  • babar3355
    babar3355 Posts: 1,128 Chairperson of the Boards
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    Yeah, I used Baral him in 2 of my 3 BP event decks. Old Baral would have been in 0 of my decks.  Olivia managed to make it into all 3 decks. Sphinx made it into 2.

    Interesting how the meta has shifted a bit, as Sphinx had been collecting dust for months until recent weeks.

    But yeah, SA is definitely the burstier card... even if he gets killed the same turn he is cast, he has done his job.  I found with Baral that if he could stay on the board for 1-2 cycles he pretty much won me the game.  Stuff like passively filling Engulf or the awaken side of Ruinous Path were unbelievably helpful if the enemy couldn't dispose of Baral 2.0 quickly.

  • Phase
    Phase Posts: 157 Tile Toppler
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    The new Baral has a better design than I would have come up with myself. He is obviously very powerful and can be used multiple different ways- causing your cheap spells to cycle (like a budget rashmi), or holding back powerful spells while controlling the board. He's still a respectable 5/5 for 8. And he doesn't feel like kicking myself between the legs playing against him and free moon prisons.

    Overall the devs should be commended for coming up with a powerful and compelling redesign of a really unhealthy card. I am much happier playing PQ without moon loops destroying the main win plans of most of my decks (creatures, haha). I am impressed.
  • babar3355
    babar3355 Posts: 1,128 Chairperson of the Boards
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    Agree with you phase... but the real credit to the dev's is they seem to have almost verbatim implemented an "adjustment" to Baral that was identical to suggestions by the community of players on the forums.  Not only did they "adjust" him well, they used player feedback.  Amazing.
  • gruntface
    gruntface Posts: 161 Tile Toppler
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    Liking Baral more here also. Not as instantly OP, but way more interesting to play with and in the right deck a lot more controllable depending on win conditions. I get to use far more interesting cards with him as is now than before when I had 8 common/uncommon cards in his deck.

    Put me in the satisfied camp. They could have really, really butchered him but he still has tons of value as is.
  • morgue427
    morgue427 Posts: 783 Critical Contributor
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    same here i dont think i would have been able to justify engulf the shore normally(i play pretty much by denying mana to the ai as getting some my self so i dont get huge cascades normally) but having baral allows me to to use it for a reset for when they load the board but what do i konw i am just a jerk that bought it and ruined everyones game pre nerf lol

  • Mainloop25
    Mainloop25 Posts: 1,940 Chairperson of the Boards
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    I do miss the explosiveness of his charging 5 mana to every spell in your hand upon entry. I wish they would bring that back. As of now, I find myself using him less and less. 
  • Steeme
    Steeme Posts: 784 Critical Contributor
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    Mainloop25 said:
    I do miss the explosiveness of his charging 5 mana to every spell in your hand upon entry. I wish they would bring that back. As of now, I find myself using him less and less. 

    It was 3 mana per spell.  Now it's 5 mana per turn.  I suppose you have access to all the other key cards.  I don't have SA, CoT, Engulf, yadda yadda yadda so Baral will end up in any blue deck that doesn't have a restriction on spells cast.
  • Gunmix25
    Gunmix25 Posts: 1,435 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited May 2017
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    Steeme said:
    Mainloop25 said:
    I do miss the explosiveness of his charging 5 mana to every spell in your hand upon entry. I wish they would bring that back. As of now, I find myself using him less and less. 

    It was 3 mana per spell.  Now it's 5 mana per turn.  I suppose you have access to all the other key cards.  I don't have SA, CoT, Engulf, yadda yadda yadda so Baral will end up in any blue deck that doesn't have a restriction on spells cast.
    Not trying to be card text police but, It's 4 mana given to each spell in hand per beginning of your turn. Saheeli players are using Baral to charge vicious red and blue removal spells while you swap for mana for your creatures. The cards don't have to be huge, just those you usually reserve in hand until the moment to strike or to defend is needed. Better than shifting your hand around and praying for enough mana on the next swap to counter whatever the AI threw at you.  Something to think on.
  • morgue427
    morgue427 Posts: 783 Critical Contributor
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    and if there is a restriction? 5 spells like jace2 is still plenty to have a couple of high cost spells, i tend to use a mix 1 or 2 high cost resets like engulf the shore and low cost like anticipate to help me get just what i need. leave the big to charge small to annoy and mess with the ai like scatter to the wind and you have a strong deck most times unless you get a horrible draw to start

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