Follow the crew of the Weatherlight as they crash-land on the plane of Mercadia. After becoming entangled in the intrigues and conflict of Mercadia City, Gerrard and the crew uncover a Phyrexian plot to invade Dominaria. Time is of the essence as the heroes race to repair their ship and stop the destruction of Dominaria.
The Mercadian Masques, Nemesis, and Prophecy sets come to Magic Online on December 5, 2011, in the form of Masques Block Booster Packs! Each Masques Block booster pack contains 15 random cards (1 rare, 3 uncommon, 10 common, and 1 basic land) drawn from throughout the entire block. Release Event Packs containing 6 Masques Block Booster Packs and 6 Event Tickets will also be available.
Experience all 636 cards in this classic block like never before.
I guess that is bummer considering drafting, but hey at least us pauper players will finally get cheaper Invigorates and will be able to build infect online for very cheap!
Post by grumpyoldgamer on Oct 12, 2011 16:18:43 GMT -5
Finally! Not the greatest block in history, but still pretty flavorful, especially Mercadian Masques. I wonder if Rebels will make splashes in Pauper...
Mike was saying that he strongly believes the depletion lands are no good but, wouldn't they be better than the invasion lands for storm?
Both come into play tapped and usually the storm player will tap a land on the second turn for one mana and then sac two lands on the third turn for 4 mana. With the depletion lands, you get 2 mana on the second turn without having to sac it, which could very well make a difference for a deck like storm.
I also wonder if they would be good in a goblins deck, where the faster you can overwhelm the opponent, the better.
For a great source of information on the Pauper format check out Pauper's Cage!
I also wonder if they would be good in a goblins deck, where the faster you can overwhelm the opponent, the better.
I don't think so with Goblins. The deck runs a fair amount of 1-drops, and being unable to play one of those on turn 1 may be a problem. And the deck can vomit itself out quickly enough that it probably doesn't need the extra mana bump from the Depletion Lands.
To hint back at my previous post however, I do think that they could be useful in a Rebel deck. I don't know if such a deck could become an alternative to the classic White Weenies deck, but I remember the Depletion Lands being good with Rebel recruiters (those rebels who can tutor for other rebels).
Halimar Depths is played in lower numbers because there are fewer ways to abuse them through shuffling in pauper. Depletion lands need to be a 4 of because you want explosive second turns consistently in aggro decks (although not many aggro decks center around 3 drops).
Storm decks could also use them but I think the Invasion sac lands are much better. You need to be able to play out Chromatic Stars and Spheres plus the occasional draw spell. Three color storm also needs too many colors on the final turn for depletion lands to handle. I could see a case for using them in UR storm but that's about it.
The one control deck I think would benefit from depletion lands is monogreen cloudpost. Playing a land destruction spell one turn earlier could provide a massive tempo advantage and crop rotation can be used to replace them when the counters are gone.
In the end, I only see depletion lands seeing play when someone comes up with a deck that wants take advantage of 3 drops on turn 2. Even then, they better come in complete sets or I'll hunt you down and tell you what a terrible deck builder you are.
Last Edit: Dec 10, 2011 1:33:04 GMT -5 by bobblyigg
I personally don't think that the depletion lands could replace the sacrifice lands in a Invasion Storm deck. It is true, you do get the same amount of mana. However, you only get one color out of them while playing cards with up to 4 colors. I'm not a Storm player but I guess even with mana fixing like Chromatic Star, you kind of depend on the whole spectrum. Talking of Chromatic Star/ Sphere, you definitively want to play one in your second turn to not waste mana when you go off. If you're playing the depletion lands, you have to remove the first counter. Thus, when going off, you'll lose the depletion land anyway.
The problem with the depletion lands is the fact that they come into play tapped. So you don't really want to play them in a super-aggressive deck. The second downside is their limited usability which basically screws up your whole mid- and end-game.
I might see a function for the depletion lands in decks that play around proliferate and/ or land recursion (e.g. Cartographer, Grim Discovery). But they don't seem too powerful on the first sight.
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