Avacyn Restored Bugs Me

This is not to cry that Magic is dead, or that Wizards has ruined the game, or any other such nonsense. I loved Innistrad's flavor AVR hit a lot of those notes perfectly. Soulbond and the "lone monster" mechanics mirror nicely. "Miracle", while awkward, creatres some fun gameplay moments which, when it comes down to it, is why we play the game.

I've played some AVR limited and toyed with the cards in other formats. Here are my concerns:

1. Miracles

Miracle reads like a designer pushing design space for cleverness' sake. Casual players don't  think about the draw step, usually breezing through untap-upkeep-draw - not necessarily even in that order - without pause. Since cheating exists any miracle needs to be revealed before hitting the hand, which sets up feel bad moments and accusations. Less skilled players must then awkwardly modify their behavior to account, and by looking at each card on reveal it often becomes clear when you're waiting for that miracle. Spikes will say that noobs need to learn proper procedure at some point, but honestly, do we want the Spikes to win?

As a pet peeve, Miracle is doable on Cockatrice (a free online MTG player) but only when the player knows the procedure, opening up a whole new set of issues there. But since I'm sure WotC would rather I pony up for MTGO, I'm sure this isn't one of their priorities (as already expressed by DFCs and cards like Praetor's Grasp or Cellar Door.

2. The Flicker Subtheme

Don't get me wrong, my inner (and outer) Johnny loves flickering things back and forth all day. My problem here is in execution.

To illustrate my point, here is a list of every common and uncommon in AVR with a relevant "enters the battlefield" trigger.

Borderland Ranger
Cathedral Sanctifier
Fervent Cathar
Goldnight Commander
Goldnight Redeemer
Gryff Vanguard
Kessig Malcontents
Kruin Striker
Midvast Protector
Mist Raven
Timberland Guide
Vigilante Justice
Voice of the Provinces

The most powerful effect is "draw a card". Every other one is at best a 1 mana affair and almost none as spell would be main-deckable in limited.

Rather than grabbing a Cloudshift and thinking "oh, all the cool things I'll get to do with this!", I instead see one and think "this may stop a removal spell". Nothing excites me enough to build the flickering deck.

"But wait!" cries every author on the MTG homepage. "You can use flicker to reset any soulbond creature!". Yeah, but I could also use any creature card to do that. Not good enough.

3. The Beneficial Auras

Every set gets beneficial auras. But this set has a theme of bouncing and flickering your own things for gain. You'd think the auras would have gotten something to accommodate this, since they fall off when you try to flicker your own things. Auras are already awkward enough, they didn't need attention drawn to their shortcomings by shoving them into the same colors which got the best flickering spells and saying "put these in the same deck, what could go wrong?". It's a minor point, but it's another grain of sand in AVR's metaphorical jockstrap.

4. Poor Wording

Take as an example Joint Assault:

Target creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn. If it's paired with a creature, that creature also gets +2/+2 until end of turn.

Which could have read, much more concisely:

Target creature and any creatures it is paired with get +2/+2 until end of turn.


This is just one example of awkward wordiness. Take also the soulbond reminder text which doesn't explain clearly that you can break a bond to pair with a new creature. (EDIT: This isn't actually true! I was wrong, but doesn't that just serve to further prove my point?) Lots of minor wording problems make the whole set feel like a rough draft.

4. Demonic Rising

Sorry, card, but I have to call you out. You're meant to be the top end enabler for the "lone monsters" theme. Say we assemble it. What do we get for the trouble? A shiny 5/5 Demon...which turns off that same theme. How awkward.

Imagine instead this off-the-cuff revision:

Demonic Abyss
3BB Enchantment

At the beginning of your end step, if you control exactly one creature, each other player sacrifices a creature

Feels evil and complements the theme instead of destroying it. And that's without any deeper thought.



The set plays fine but doesn't have the streamlined feel I got from Rise of Eldrazi or New Phyrexia. Everything feels haphazard and incomplete. I just hope it's not a trend.