Core 1: Updates

Core 1 | Updates

2/26
Fairly large update. As I work on Concord, I realized a few cards from here were unhealthy for the format. Namely Lightning Bolt and AEther Adept. As I am removing the premium red card, and a very good blue card, I needed to add some power in other areas.
-Lightning Bolt out, Shock in. Shock will still be a good card in the format.
-Black Knight/White Knight have transformed into Blood Knight/Silver Knight. Red loses bolt, but it gets a very solid aggressive creature, white wins out a bit, as silver knight is marginally better than white knight.
-Fire Imp was removed for Blood Knight. This is a downgrade in limited, but red's uncommons were strong all around in limited, and Fire Imp doesn't mesh well with the bloodthirst theme.
-Earth Servant out, Volcanic Fallout in. Another little upgrade from Pyroclasm (which this set was missing) should help red in other areas.
-Garruk's Storm got turned into a 4/4 for 4R that sparkmage apprentices for itself. It replaces the fatty role that Earth Servant had, and looks less like an Embersmith clone. It cares only about 3+ power creatures now too, giving it a more niche identity.

With Black Knight out, I needed another interesting card for Black.
-Black Knight turned into Bloodlusting Vampire. Having a way to not fold to Volcanic Fallout is good for a vampire deck.
-Rise from the Grave turned in to Reaper's Pact. I was looking for ways to push certain elements that haven't been pushed in a while, as I was pulling back in a few areas. Reanimator is a fun archetype that will get another shot.
-While looking through the cards, I realized Stitched Abomination was pretty boring for a rare. He now has a cool second ability that makes him something other than just an awkward Sprouting Thrinax.

As for Blue, a few changes needed to be made. Aether Adept is a very strong card in limited, and blue had lost a lot from M11.
-AEther Adept turned into Windwalker. The format for this environment is more creature centered than usual, so having efficient creatures around is very supportive.
-Air Figment is now unblockable. The sky can get a bit gummed up, so having an unblockable creature helps a lot. It also makes him much more of a must-kill, which encourages keeping an eye on ways to kill him.
-The removal of AEther Adept meant I had to add a bounce spell at common. I choose Disperse for it's mediocrity, as bounce is somewhat powerful in the format I have created.
-Disperse bumped Sleeping Spell up to uncommon, which got a pretty nice power boost.
-Sleeping Spell bumped Expend into Concord, which it makes more sense anyways.

1/18
-Did a good bit of testing today. Beyond small power tweaks/color balance I think the set is in pretty good shape.
-(((Wizard's Familiar))) updated to 1U to cast and 1U to return. A 1/1 flier for U was already a bit high on the curve, and he was a little too good at playing Echo Tracer.
-Dragonburst now permanently turns the creature into a dragon. Cost increased to 4RR. Any hope at constructed playability is probably gone, but it makes much more sense.

Updated on 21 Mar 2011 by Alex