Gilded Lotus

Mburn7

Furks said:

Yes it's a strong card, but it's not on the same level as omnipotence or baral. Granted its also a rare and colorless.

I think the card is a fit in pretty much any deck but it's not going to be THE card that wins you the game. You're going to end up seeing this card A LOT but it won't be the defining card of the deck. It's not a build-around card. 

True, but it enables you to do a lot of nasty stuff.  The newer walkers especially have stupidly good mana gains already, adding an extra +10 (and loyalty bonus) will allow for some ridiculous gains.  
It'll make a lot of expensive decks much faster.

Tilwin90

Eh I have experimented with it quite a bit, and I have to say it remains super powerful in the hands of Karn. Already having flat bonuses that are further boosted by it is excellent. But the real reason is he has an easy time digging for it (first ability digs 4 cards deep) + doing so also nets another +1 on each bonus. 
For other planeswalkers it's alright to grab it, but I'm not overly excited to grab it. Definitely won't save you later on. Its power lies in its flexibility, but I still find Settle the Wreckage and River's Rebuke as vastly superior rares.

The main reason why I am defending it so much is that it's enabling us to play more magic rather than balance things towards a "let's match more and play less"   It is merely an enabler.

Firinmahlazer

khurram said:

In the few games I played with it it got popped too quickly

I experienced the same thing. It's only a 2 shield and can be knocked down pretty easily. 

IM_CARLOS

Hixus is 1 shield an is still very usefull. You can't have everything.

Pair it with nyx or use tezz/karn to improve shieldbase, cast a second one, whir into a second one or take it as a little fragile gem. 

Gabrosin

Gilded Lotus is effectively a Manalith on any turn in which you make a single mana match.  Its strength is from the player's ability to find cascades.  I think it's a very good card, but it's not broken.

IM_CARLOS

Mmh... if you think of 2 shield, it's broken very fast.

madwren

It's superb.

Pavorus

Gabrosin said:

Gilded Lotus is effectively a Manalith on any turn in which you make a single mana match.  Its strength is from the player's ability to find cascades.  I think it's a very good card, but it's not broken.

I think this comment is about right. If you don't cascade you only get 2 mana. Even if you do cascade once it's still only 4 mana. Sometimes you'll get lucky and get multiple cascades but most of the time I think youre going to get 2-4 mana a turn making it pretty on par with other mana making rares.

Compare to gem changing supports. If your planewalker has a +4 to an on color match and your gem changing support creates an on color match you gain 7 mana on that card that turn. 

I am very pleased to see the devs trying this style of ramp out. I think the lotus's style of ramp is more sustainable in the long run than gem changers are. With bonuses to matches rather than changes there are fewer giant swings and it lowers the likelyhood that supports that do other things don't end up collateral damage to changers. 

gogol666

It's a lotus...it is meant to be powerful and fragile. I think it's nicely on spot

Sirchombli

It's going to be the go to, generic mana fixer. It'll be especially nice in white decks because it runs no risk of popping your fragile control supports. I don't like it a whole lot in conjunction with storm. Same reason I don't like tutelage with it. It's been a rocksatar so far in angrath and ajani vengeant.

hawkyh1

is it a stronger version of remunap excavator?

HH

Froggy

hawkyh1 said:

is it a stronger version of remunap excavator?

HH

Yes. As you get +2 on all colors, including loyalty gem matches.

morgue427

no it proably wont win games but it can help win with sub par pws like the original ones. for what it does i think 2 is a reasonable trade off not like hixus but still fragile

Theros

I personally prefer they increase mana bonuses for PWS across the board.
I hope lotus won't present boosting sub par pws

Furks

I don't really think guilded lotus makes sub par pw's viable. Having to put an extra card in your deck, rely on drawing it and pay 7 mana to cast it, just to be on par with other pw's isn't really viable. Especially when the good pw's can do just the same.

Any mana generating supports would make sub par pw's viable with that logic. 

Mburn7

Furks said:

I don't really think guilded lotus makes sub par pw's viable. Having to put an extra card in your deck, rely on drawing it and pay 7 mana to cast it, just to be on par with other pw's isn't really viable. Especially when the good pw's can do just the same.

Any mana generating supports would make sub par pw's viable with that logic. 

Its not quite the same, as most of the issues with sub-par walkers like Sarkhan and Zendikar Gideon are their inability to cast things with one match (since they max out at +2 for any one color).

Upping that to +4 makes them much more viable not because of the ramping, but because they now have several colors that can instantly play 6 and 7 drops instead of only 5 drops

Furks

@Mburn7 true, but that applies equally to 8-9 mana spells for the 'good' planeswalkers.

I wouldn't consider the 'bad' planeswalkers to be fixed just because of this support. They could still use some love

morgue427

sub par is a relative term the original pws have good abilities for the most part some more so than others, but based on how you use them but all could use a mana gain i think to make them useable with all the bigger ones out there

Froggy

@Brigby I see no reason to nerf hammer this little guy. Why is it on the nerf conveyor belt?

Kinesia

As Froggy said, it wasn't breaking things, though I do see a lot of affects that work off mana bonuses so it might be due to that. But maybe it would've been better just making _1_ of the changes first instead of increases it's cost _and_ reducing the effect?