span_argoman wrote: khurram wrote: ... avaracious dragon, abbot are all getting buffed by getting their costs reduced... Avaricious Dragon and Abbot are getting nerfed. They are losing their ability to draw cards with the cost reduced / mana gained which was what made them useful in the first place. Their reduced cost does little to compensate that. Avaricious cost is reduced by 3 but the subsequent drawn cards are all back to normal cost (the old effect was that subsequent drawn cards are ALL 3 mana cheaper). That's a huge nerf. Abbot cost is reduced by 2 but you no longer gain 6 mana to the drawn card. That's up to 4 mana less. Changing the gem destruction from a 3x3 to a 5x5 doesn't affect all that much in terms of cascading for mana.
khurram wrote: ... avaracious dragon, abbot are all getting buffed by getting their costs reduced...
span_argoman wrote: Morphis, I doubt destroying 3 gems is likely to give you cascades for 10+ mana. It doesn't shake up the board enough. I agree that the mana denial aspect will be nice though. Also the strongest aspect of Avaricious Dragon was to build it in a deck with an array of good Red utility spells (Exquisite Firecraft, Fiery Bloodlust, Ravaging Blaze, Demolish, etc.). That way when you drew those cards they were cheap enough to cast with one gem match. Being utility cards you didn't want to waste matches charging them with mana before the primary stuff like getting your creatures on the board, and Avaricious Dragon solved that problem. And if you wanted to go further, Rambler for 5 mana is a very sweet deal. Ditto Abbot for 12 mana when it gets you a 6/5 and up to 6 mana back. The new design may possibly gain you mana but it'll be to your first card. So unless your hand is empty, which is unlikely for Red, this loses the utility aspect of the old design which is what I believe made the card strong. If the card was a gain 3 mana each turn it would still be strong but less so.
"David wrote: Moore"] • Buy a Battle for Zendikar Fat Pack and gain a guaranteed extra Rare Oath of the Gatewatch card
nexus13 wrote: The text on the new version of Abbot doesn't mention fetching a card. The release notes implied you should still fetch a card just not get any many gain for it.
wurtnik wrote: • Buy a Battle for Zendikar Fat Pack and gain a guaranteed extra Rare Oath of the Gatewatch card I just bought a fatpack and didn't receive a rare OGW. Got seed Guardian, which is uncommon, but the only reason I bought the fatpack (luckily happenened on 1st one as I was planning on getting multiples) was because I read this and wanted to get a head start on the new rares.
• Buy a Battle for Zendikar Fat Pack and gain a guaranteed extra Rare Oath of the Gatewatch card Oath of the Gatewatch Boosters are obtainable as rewards from the Oath of the Gatewatch event. For a limited time, you will also receive one Oath of the Gatewatch Booster per Battle for Zendikar Big Box you purchase. Each Oath of the Gatewatch Booster contains 5 cards from the set, and has a guaranteed Rare in every Booster.
wurtnik wrote: The Booster (with a guaranteed rare) is if you get a big box. The guaranteed rare (without booster) was stated for fatpack purchases. I bought a fatpack and didn't get a rare.
Morphis wrote: If i could I would convert also the last animist awakening to runes. That's how bad it became. I think so far this is how it performed: 30% of the time it pays for himself. You use a card to do nothing. 30% does not even trigger anything: you wasted 5 mana and a card. 40% it does trigger a cascade: net gain here. That is for the instant effect. The really bad thing is the other one. If there are 8 or more gems.... That one(if it procs) 80% of the time will be nullified by opponent. Good thing I started using nissa renewal a while ago... Was trying again both ramps and this is the result. RIP Animist awakening.
soultwist wrote: Yeah, I used it a lot and I think was a really great card. But where still lots of times that I'd get no match even with 8 on the board! Not as often as it helped me but often times it just set the board perfect for opponent. I haven't really tried it now.