The problem with the Eldrazi Colorless scheme was it was a solution to the popular 6th Color discussion. It was a bad solution. They should have gone with the purple as suggested in that magazine article all those years ago if they wanted to do it. The creation of Devoid as a means to somehow restrict the use of colorless cards was another bad solution, and just perpetuated the problem. Now instead of Colorless decks, and colored decks that splash colorless, you have decks that take the strongest parts of both and mash em together. Silliness.
The problem with Talon Gates is not the card itself - it is that people will play it wrong. Almost everyone will slot this into a deck and then cut either a basic or a utility land. WRONG. If you're slotting this, it should be in a a protection slot. This is an instant speed phasing protection spell that has the added benefit of ramping you. That is amazing. Its literally top 3 or 4 in the format, but because it is a land, it will end up leading to people cutting down on their land base some more.
The perfect slot for it is as a protection spell in a gate deck because it can also be the last gate you put down at instant speed before your turn for the win.
@@damienjohnson3450 Correct me if I'm wrong but gate decks' only outright win is through Maze's End which is already an instant speed ability and fetches for the last gate. I would honestly say its perfect for gate deck because you can literally tutor it out at instant speed at any time from your deck with Maze's End - who care about just playing it one turn earlier? My pod has a gate deck and it being able to be used at instant speed isn't necessarily that strong because they're already running effects that allow them to play multiple lands per turn and grab stuff on other peoples' turns - though I'm not saying that your suggestion wouldn't be useful at all.
2:56 I think this cycle gets played primarily in green decks due to the quantity of "graveyard to play" cards in green. No matter which side you use you will get value. In addition, any deck that plays life from the loam is going to appreciate this card, as an untapped cycling land. Comparing it to Wilds or Expanse is reductive, because you have the feels bad of top decking them late, which is practically negated by the 2 other abilities on this card. These are staples in 3 color decks.
Those landscapes are going to go into my three color decks. I already like using the panoramas which these essentially are but are color restricted and the fetching is free. Whenever I use them the panoramas, they're tapping for colorless a lot and fetch for the land when you already got the mana open and not much else to do with it.
I love the precedent Talon Gates sets for 'land spells'. As you say this specific one is nice (but not crucial) but I hope they experiment with it more.
I have a Teetering Peeks in my Xyris deck (red producing land that gives a creature +2/+0 when it ETBs) while it doesn't use any instant speed abilities, it has been a nice free effect on a land that feels like a spell. There's also quite a few lands out there that have some useful sacrifice effects that do things outside of just fetching more lands - also in my Xyris deck I have a Hashep Oasis (pay 1GG sac a desert: Give a creature +3/+3 until end of turn as a sorcery) and a Centaur Garden (pretty much the same, different costs). I'd recommend that if you're brewing something up you just spend some time looking at every land that fits your colors (limit it to a couple of colors or a particular narrow ability so you aren't overwhelmed with options) because there's honestly way more niche utility lands out that that should really be ran more often then they are, but aren't because people simply don't know about them. One of my favorite utility lands of all time is Tower of the Magistrate (I think it was featured on this channel once). Tap for colorless, or pay 1 and tap to give a creature protection from artifacts until end of turn. Doesn't sound very exciting, unless you read it as 'make every piece of equipment fall off of target creature and they can't re-equip them until next turn'. I love it as a utility piece but it may be too narrow/hateful - it pretty much invalidates any equipment based Voltron strategies because for 2 mana investment every turn you can turn their entire deck off using the least interactable permanent type in the game (and its from a colorless source so their swords won't stop it from going through).
Talon Gates of Madara phase mechanic is another example of WoTC putting mechanics in cards that are not explained on the card. When does the targeted creature phase back in? What is a phase? It's a relatively rare mechanic and just another barrier to entry with how complicated the damn thing is.
Silverquill Lecturer is gonna go in my lifegain deck. Demonstrate the creatures that gain you life and don't demonstrate the pay offs. It'll keep whoevers sinking removal into the problem at the table alive longer too.
I see Talon Gates as colorless Odowara but it can't hit non creatures, meaning it can stop a grand abolisher but not a breach line in cEDH. It's ramp and protection in EDH so it might be worse and I'm not super sure if it will be a great card in every deck like you said. Colorless does have a identity, its the lack of color almost all of the cards have to do with eldrazi, exile, annihilation, the blind eternities ETC. It's a bit of a 6th color but it's identity is essentially being outside the color pie.
Some notes and condiretations -The snow colored waste is a reference to the Eldrazi Winter -silverquill guy goes easly in any poplulate deck. - the 3 manarock are rrally good way to slow down the format. I picked a couple of them the foundry is so interesting.
I think dog umbra is my favorite I have a yorion deck where I have passify effects and move them around to stop problem. This card has the edge where 1 has flash so instant speed pacify great against haste creatures. Also it protects my commander great creature.
Flash is key as well I’m luck enough that a lot of the card I play have strict upgrades with flash like omen of the sea so just waiting to get value or protection is great
I'm still looking for an argument that convinces me not to play Talon Gates of Madara in every single deck I own. The opportunity cost is just crazy. I mean, the floor is an untapped colorless land that can at least filter for any color. That's the floor? The ceiling can be either play it as your land per turn and wrath, or pay the 4 to protect something while ramping a land, or removing a blocker you need to connect, or removing an engine commander who will win the game this turn, or a grand abolisher in the higher level metas? Yeah, it won't happen every game, but the only cost I'm paying to run it is an untapped filter land? Am I missing something? Please talk me out of it being an insta-include in every single deck
i believe i made the argument in this video. i could name about 10 utility lands i would rather have in most decks. 4 mana ramp is terrible and 4 mana save your commander is also not great. most colors have better ways to do it.
The funny part about the lands is, that they probably added the cycling cost just so casual commander decks cant include all of them to tutor just for 2 colors in their decks.
My pet peeve is when people refer to every creature in Magic as "he", even when the card obviously doesn't depict a man. People do it at my LGS too and it annoys me to no end lol But I digress, great video and I'm looking forward to release!
Out of how much I hate MH3 and everything modern WOTC has done the past year or so, I think nine-fingers is finally playable with 3 gates in the set making it possible to have 16 or 17 gates now in BUG
Charitable Levy seems like a bad card to me. You want to counters on it but makes noncreature spells cost one more. That makes it slooooooow. It's harder for them cast noncreature spells, then you have to wait for three or more to be cast ... slow. I hate cards like that: it's slow because you have to wait for three or more to be cast and it depends on what your opponents are doing. Sure, I guess your noncreature spells count too, but it makes you pay one more for each one. Slow.
@@edhdeckbuilding Hello! No, never played Thalia. But any card with ramp and card draw would have to be better. At least Thalia is a creature. I guess anyone who plays Thalia in a creature-heavy deck should also play Levy. I would guess it also depends on the meta in your playgroup. Also, it's not the part it shares with Thalia that bugs me; it's the added part that takes possibly several turns to take effect that bugs me.
@@dariocampanella7992 Ah ok. I'm really impatient with cards that take several turns to do anything. I'm guessing it would be better depending on your playgroup's meta.
The problem with this set aside from the uninspired design compared to the previous MH sets is how obviously good everything in it is. There are no original card designs, they are all just powerful, pushed and sometimes better versions of older cards.
I'm mildly disappointed with you on this one. You keep using "strict upgrade," but you're just falling into the same incorrect logic most players have when using it and I thought you were better than that. Just because a card is (usually) stronger doesn't mean it's a strict upgrade to another. The most egregious I've seen so far is Siege Smash. Strict upgrade over _abrade_ of all things? If you remove half a abrade's text, sure. Just because the (likely) most used option between them (artifact destruction) has a clear winner, their other effects are _completely different!_ Edit: ok, you very shortly after admit it isn't a strict upgrade. I guess argument bugs me more than I thought
it is not incorrect to say that this set is full of power creep and strict upgrades. there's a reason why everyone is saying it. siege smash might not be one but there are many more.
