My Comments On GDS2 Episode 1

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/117z

Ethan Fleischer

+1/+1 counters as a resource seems neat.

Evolve: Simple but flavoful mechanic.

Mischiveous Monkey: Artifact bounce doesn’t seem right for green. This should just be a Mox Monkey variant.

Velociraptor Pack: I’d say Raptors belong in red, but otherwise it’s a fine card.

Nature’s Sacrifice: Nice spin on Nature’s Claim.

Heavy Shell: This should be uncommon. Do you want Troll Shroud and Regenerate all over Limited?

Jon Loucks

New version of Illuminate seems too complicated and the forced nature of it seems unfun. Geez stuck on two land Example: Stuck on two land but want to kill your Birds Of Paradise with Piercing Beam. Illuminate the top card of my library…it’s a land. That I wanted to draw next turn. That I have to exile now. UGH.

Living Reflection seems like too much of a memory issue, especially at common. One shot creatures like Refracted Runner might be okay (but 4 abilities on a common seems too much) and even a CIPT 1/1. But when you get into funky P/T combinations like Lavaskin Thragg I think you’re entering a land of confusion.

Speaking of Flashbomber: terrible name as he neither has Flash nor blows anything up.

Steamdriller: Does red get 4/4s at common? I still like Dig as a Cycling variant.

Shawn Main

Forsake: Cycling from play! MaRo will approve. Certainly becomes more “fair” without combat damage on the stack.

Blight seems neat. More token generation than usual works nicely with it, the sacrifice effects like Forsake provide a way to fight it, and the ‘goes to graveyard’ triggers like Bloodlust work nice with it. All around smash hit I think.

Devon Rule

Devon really goofed on reprints: Giant Cockroach AND Snuff Out, plus Tavern Sellsword is a functional reprint (Krovikan Scoundrel and Dakmor Scorpion).

Gold counters seem very interesting and I like his take on Mercenaries.

Jay Treat

Commune: So it’s just Kinship with a trigger for when you reveal? Not sure how fun that is.

I understand what he’s trying to do with the “two or more creature types” vs “less than two creature types” but I don’t like it.

Tale Of The Lazy Cat: seems like a mess – an Enchantment with a static ability while it’s in play targeting a creature that enters the battlefield when it’s in the graveyard. I think you have to just word it as a triggered ability that mirrors the static ability to make this work under the rules, but too many of these could be a pain to deal with. Probably doesn’t belong at common.

The only reason I see for Morph to still be in the set is allowing for the surprise factor of “I have no creature types” turning into “I have 2+ creature types”. Which is a lousy reason.

Scott Van Essen

Essence Thief: Lifelink and Swampwalk together on a common? Dislike.

Like the use of +1/+1 counters. Similar concept to Fleisher, but I think I like Van Essen’s better.

Daniel Williams

New version of Showdown seems better, but I feel like it still needs some tweaking. Not sure how well it works at Common. Clash was okay at common because you didn’t have cards changing zones and the decisions were simpler.

Good choice keeping Revelation.

Bringing back Aurochs = awesome. They don’t need to be in large numbers, just common.

I feel like the mechanics still need some hammering out, but the awesome flavor keeps showing through.

Jon Woodward

Erupt feels out of place in the set. Swarm encourages creatures. Incarnate and Favored encourage Auras. But Erupt wants to you to play Instants and Sorceries. Pulls in too many directions! Either this needs to be ditched entirely or turned into a set where mechanics are divided by color: Swarm and Favored in G/W, Erupt in U/R, and I’m not sure about B. (With Incarnate still across all 5 colors.)

My Rankings For This Round (Best To Worst)
Shawn Main
Devon Rule
Daniel Williams
Jon Woodward
Scott Van Essen
Ethan Fleisher
Jay Treat
Jon Louck