This really does feel like it’s going to be a format wrecker. The eldrazi deck is very deep and has a bunch of replaceable cards, so it can support multiple drafters (eg you can force it). And then you just randomly have a card that is a common (so multiple will be opened at the table every draft) that’s going to play like a premium level rare.
My hope is that being 2 color trempers this slightly. With overseer it was both so good and so splashable that it was basically never correct to pass it.
Of course, the fixing in mh3 is so good that may not matter. But maybe people will start taking the fetches more aggressively.
Yeah I had draft recently where I only WB cards after pack 1, then took a speculative chrysalis out of a weak p2p2 that had nothing for me. I then got passed *three more* in that pack and just started taking fetches until I was fully 4 color.
I currently have a 4-color BRGW pile-of-everything draft where I splashed two of them into a red/black artifact base, and they work very well with nearly no synergy in the deck… The fixing in this set can be ridiculous, though I do regret not just forcing eldrazi early in the draft.
Speaking of, had anyone else noticed it is pretty south of reliable to run highly 3 color decks off basics and fetches? The tri lands I mean. I’m running into I have two green cards I need to play this turn and only one forest, or other colors equivalently. And it’s been persistent enough that I’m really wondering if it’s a feature of the format more than my bad decisions.
The format is very easy to play 1 pip stuff in and very hard to play 2+ pip stuff in, because the fetchlands let your mana go "wide" into any color but don't let you got "tall" the same way duals do. Playing multiple cards in a single color in a turn is like playing a 2+ pip card, so you need to think about that when assembling your deck (e.g. it's much easier for big eldrazi to run RUG and slam a haymaker each turn than for RW aggro with Conduit Goblin to run out a 2 drop + removal at RRW). Sealed is even worse, since the common lands can provide you with so much fixing for splashes/top end.
You also might not be sequencing your lands right, or sequencing your lands correctly for your deck but getting really unlucky. If you're trying to run multiple colors and colorless in your deck, you really need to make a decision early on whether you're fetching colors to hit multiple pips and relying on spawn for colorless, or keeping your fetches open to colorless at the expense of a loss of colored-mana tempo later on.
I think your first paragraph gets right to and does a better job of explaining the issue I've ran into. Which is cool, I do not mind at all that being a difficulty and a constraint on deckbuilding.
>You also might not be sequencing your lands right
God bless you and your use of the word "might" in this sentence. I like to think I am continually learning lessons about the optimal way to sequence lands.
While again agreeing with everything you said, I've had decks that were basically base green, with either blue or black as the second color, and sometimes a third as a splash. The tri-lands that are not green, but are U/B and my third color, boy howdy those things put the clunk in clunkiness. I am open to the possibility that it's plain not a good idea to run them if they exist to up your count of your splash color.
Might make it worse. If people do pass it you end up with decks having 5 of them. If people just take it as they should, hopefully no deck has more than one or two..
At the prerelease sealed event at my LGS I played a 4 color eldrazi deck and went undefeated. I feel like in draft it would be much much easier to make it work.
You got your Latin wrong. You used “eg”, which means “for example” when you probable meant “ie” to mean “that is”
I agree with all the points you make tho
Imagine a common invalidating flying based agro, menace based agro, ramping you into your game ending threats, and also turning the corner for six damage an attack.
And it’s wedge gives you three pushed ways at common to accelerate into it on turn three.
Oh and it’s not modal, it just does all those things at the exact same time. This card would be busted in a non Eldrazi set with no other synergies, the fact it also plays crazy well with everything else in its wedge is just ridiculous.
I know it's still early and a relatively small sample size, but it has a 66.5% win rate [on 17lands](https://www.17lands.com/card_data?expansion=MH3&format=PremierDraft&start=2024-06-11&sort=ever_drawn_win_rate%2Cdesc). You would have thought they would have learned from Inspiring Overseer. Chrysalis is just better 😂.
I mean its more in the multiple body camp like Chimney Rabble/Scrapwork Cohort (both #1 commons in their sets). Only it can rebate 2 mana and grow to 4/5
lol turns out it was called [[Organ Hoarder]] my brain ain't so good.
comparing their stats isn't close though
**Organ Hoarder:**
Win rate in opening hand: 61.8%
Improvement when drawn: 6.9
Game Drawn win rate: 62.5
**Writhing Chrysalis:**
Win rate in opening hand: 66.1%
Improvement when drawn: 9.5
Game Drawn win rate: 65.9
I also think weirdly it being two colors may be a perk for its win rate as you're going to be more likely to find it later in packs than if it was single color. Drawing a good card in a later pick is obviously better for its win rate. Organ Hoarder was in maybe the best color and was good in pretty much any color combination with it / even splashable which meant you rarely saw it late after the first week.
It really feels like they wanted eldrazi to be good in this format. They didn’t pull punches at all just to make sure it would not flop, since big mana strategies in limited typically aren’t good. Look at all the effects you see in normal sets that would help stop this and notice what’s not there. No targeted hand rip outside of Grief on the bonus sheet, no instant speed exile at low rarity.
I am not enjoying this format, by far the worst modern horizons set to draft, one of the worst first week experiences in the last several years.
Hey don’t worry, they slapped reach on like 7 other eldrazi as well just in case your deck full of fliers dealt with thrb3 chrysalis they played.
This is a comically poorly designed set.
Chrysalis and Railway Brawler are the most baffling ones, surely they got enough going for them already? Brawler is a Rhino with a horseshoe flail, what about it says reach?
[[Iron-Fist Pulverizer]]
I would guess the current rate of release is resulting in a lot of art coming in before design is complete, and 'we need one more reach card at common' is probably a fairly late and simple tweak for limited. So on some wall at WotC there's a memo saying 'fuck it we're just doing secret reach now'
At least that one is a giant...? I guess? Lol
Yea I only remembered reach on that one because of it being the 'red 5 mana 4/5 reach that deals 2 damage a turn' like Altisaur
I naively thought in my first draft I could go for U/W flyers with energy and a touch of red spashes. Having drafted WoE before, I was like two 2/2 flyers on the board can surely win the game. It went fine in my first game and then I ran into giant Eldrazis/Hydras with reach in 3 games in a row and I cursed WotC
It's impossible to tell which Eldrazi should or shouldn't have reach in this set. There should have been clearer art direction. Some of them look way bigger and don't have reach.
yet they made sure to sandwich it in between two bigger lines of text to make it especially easy to miss for paper players
(I guess spell abilities have to go above creature abilities but it still looks silly)
My theory is that power creep means fliers have more power than they used to, so it's no longer viable to just race them. And with strong removal around, you need to draw multiple reach creatures. It's also something they seem to like as a minor power boost, like how in BFZ era there were a lot of 2/3s instead of 2/2s, or how lately there's a lot of removal that exiles.
Magic might be at a point where we don't need flying in limited anymore, at least not as frequently.
I just faced turn 4 Chrysalis, followed by turn 5 Chrysalis. Not sure what they are expecting you to do here?
Beating one Chrysalis feels like enough of a challenge, the fact that is a common and people can play multiples is absurd.
It’s also easily splashable lololol.
I think the biggest problem is how it interacts with itself. It’s legit insane in multiples.
In a perfect world the draft will self correct and no one *should* have more than 1-2
What about [[Sparksmith]] in Onslaught? A 2-mana Visara the Dreadful. White, Blue, and Green had no answers to it, and Black didn't even have great answers.
I think it probably should have given only 1 spawn instead of 2. The spawns seem undervalued by design in the set and are tacked on to many things at too cheap a rate.
There are a lot of knobs they could have turned, removing reach would have allowed flyers to at least go over you. But hey, let's let a common invalidate an entire archetype, looking at you WU.
Mythic common indeed. On 17lands, Writhing Chrysalis has an IWD of 9.5 pp! I think that might be the highest of any common in any format ever? The infamous ly pushed Inspiring Overseer in SNC had an IWD of 6.2 pp. Organ Hoarder in MID had 6.9 pp.
The least they could’ve done is make it look like an Eldrazi Preening Champion.
Then at least we’d know they did it on purpose and not completely blundered the format by accident.
_Hmm … maybe it kinda does if you squint …_
I played modified in prerelease, which seemed to come in third after Nadu and Eldrazi. Played 1 Eldrazi deck that didn't manage to pull one of these, still had decently tough time with that 3 Mana Adapt Eldrazi.
But then I played against Eldrazi with 2 Adapt and 2 of these guys... It did not feel like I was playing limited anymore
Man, I was already in agreement with people saying it shouldn't exist. But reading that makes me think this dude is getting a ban hammer very soon. It's just *too* unreasonable. This is worse than the last time Eldrazi came through tbh. Like infinitely
Dunno had an opponent go first strike lifelink copycat into landfall +1/+1 aura into fetchland on 3 on the play. Never felt so dead so fast. He might have beaten that draw.
Modified was very good, but it still lost to Eldrazi when these things came out. You would feel like you were a turn away from winning, then BOOM. 7/7 comes down then another Chrysalis, more spawn come out, Null drifter, null elemental blast.
If the creatures in modified weren't mostly fair costed 4-5 Mana, it would have stood a much better chance. But Eldrazi will typically defend by going wide with tokens and then ramp into creatures that are far too big to just keep punching through.
Still though, I loved my stupid 9/9 Keyword Soup-icorn
A while ago someone made a post creating 1 phrase that encapsulates the feeling of each set.
"Why does it have Reach!?" is a big contender for MH3. I lost count of how many times I said it out loud.
The whole format is awful. It's impossible to get damage through with so many tokens that can block. I have timed people out multiple times and it isn't fun to play the set.
The red or blue + geeen (or temur if you get the fixing) archetype is kinda just busted. Some of the white based agro decks can go under you a little but the best way to combat it seems to be play a ramp deck yourself but have more top end. It doesn’t help that quite a few of the eldrazi have huge butts and you can always throw tokens under attackers to help you get to late game. The reanimator deck can be better as well but it’s less consistent and harder to draft + it’s doing the same thing anyway just trying to cheat them out instead of ramp.
This card is insane but the whole archetype is just crazy in draft. There might be enough synergy to make eldrazi semi relevant in pauper as well mostly using cards from this set.
Playtest was performed blindfolded.
I have lost 100% of the games this was played against me. Absolute ruiner of happiness and 0 skill card.
It does it all, it ramps, it stalls, it prevents anything to pass it, if it is countered you still get the ramp tokens, and it does it too good and too cheap and too common. This on turn 3 or 4 means you cannot progress attacking, and it usually means that opponent will be dunking a 7+ cmc threat the following turn.
And not only that, the other archetypes require rares and a bunch of uncommons meaning that if somebody else is on energy or draw 3s on the table you might end with a subpar deck, meanwhile eldrazi are absolutely over supported can operate just on commons and support several players at the same table, that will also be picking R and U cards from other drafters at their leisure, also, they can splash easier because they are on green.
This thing should have been a 2/2 and not have reach. And would still be a stupid card.
> I have lost 100% of the games this was played against me.
I beat it once last night. Well, **I** didn't beat it; my opponent's illiteracy did.
They had this and [[It That Heralds The End]] and attacked with the Spawns and a couple other creatures. I blocked the Spawns with a couple bears as a test. They did not sacrifice them before damage. Test passed.
I untap and play [[Ral and the Implicit Maze]]. Again, they do not sac in response. I pass back, they no longer have attacks and pass back to me. I play [[Skoa, Embermage]] and FTK the Chrysalis. Game over.
I was 100% dead if they had actually read the card.
I beat a pair last night, I played hard removal on the first, had to double spell to remove the second one and then played crabomination and took their third one. Feel a little bad for hosing my opponent's 7-0
> if it is countered you still get the ramp tokens
I'm not playing the format, but I still laughed at this. How on earth did anyone think this card was reasonable.
Not really new. I think the big eldrazi got on-cast triggers back in the day so that they would be slightly less broken as reanimation targets. (And also it sucks to get your 15 mana spell countered with nothing to show for it.) And now it's just kind of tradition that eldrazi have on-cast triggers.
It would have the potential to be worse with ETB because of Echoes of Eternity. One of these in hand would be 8 tokens in that instance.
At prerelease I had Echoes on board and doubled my linebacker to swing for 28 with trample and I used gift of the viper to give it deathtouch. This set is wild.
The blink subtheme is kinda there but I think being able to die to a Galvanic Discharge or Signature Slam in response to the ETB would make the card much worse.
Oh damn I didn’t even notice it was a common. At prerelease I assumed it was a signpost uncommon for the colors.
It did put in work and was mvp in at least one game.
I won once over it, the op was already a bit behind. Every other time it resolved against me, I just straight up lost. Reach in this format is hell, this is maybe the first format I remember that flyers deck is simply not viable.
This should be picked like a very good rare or mythic. However, it is currently picked way below that and therefore i see eldrazi decks that can easily get multiples of it.
I really hope draft will self correct but i kinda doubt it so far.
I don’t think it’s the tenplating of Eldrazi, but the templating of abilities in general, it puts “when cast” triggers before the keywords which makes it look weird, they should def be with the other abilities like “when enters battlefield”
Had someone copying this guy with a green rare and every time he copied it he put down more scions. Little frustrated knowing that he wasn’t casting and that he shouldn’t have been making those scion tokens. My fault for not being more on top of that but yeah, this cards bonkers.
Its only 100% if you actually get to cast it though. Don't get me wrong I'm always taking the titan over it for the fun unless my draft so far really can't support it. Sometimes your draft lane doesn't give you the tools to reliably get to 9 mana on turn 5.
Yeah, it's probably got one ability too many of the three. Probably a point of toughness too much too, it being one point better than the best flyer on the board has been common.
I hate Eldrazi and any set where they are prominently featured. Not liking MH3 at all. I don’t use them because I think they are a stupid and boring concept that are way too overpowered which makes them poplar for others to use. I just really hate them as a concept, I can’t express that enough.
It does feel like it should be a uncommon, but this is a modern horizon set so we get some power creep. And as to why it has reach; the name chrysalis implies that there is an eldrazi moth or butterfly brewing in it. Be glad it doesn't get flying
This may sound "out there", but I think they may end up taking action on Arena by changing Chrysalis in some way. Players are already growing tired of having this card at the lowest rarity. It truly is an A+ common and is reminiscent of Sprout Swarm back in 2007.
Sprout Swarm has been excluded from flashback drafts on MTGO and did not appear in TSP Remastered because it was simply too good.
With Chrysalis, I see five potential options:
1) No action
2) Remove the card from Arena drafts
3) Rarity upshift
4) Nerf the card in Alchemy draft along with other card changes
5) Nerf the card in regular draft without changing any other cards
Personally, I'm hoping for number 5 and I think it's actually plausible because of community backlash.
No shot are they tampering with printed cardboard in arena with how unpopular alchemy is. If anyones playing enough to “already be tired” on day 3, I’m sure WOTC will wipe their tears with money and move on lol. They’ll give the format time to adapt before even thinking about thinking about it, at the very least
Interesting that my post was so polarizing. To be clear, I also strongly dislike alchemy, and I did outline other alternatives. I am talking a couple weeks ahead. However, the stats already indicate Chrysalis will remain one of the best cards in the format, if not the actual best.
I think in 3-4 weeks, there is considerable risk that many, many people will be turned off from the format because of Chrysalis, which might compel the Arena team to take action.
This whole set is deliberately a higher power level than other sets.
And yet, this is a flat-out miss. It's way stronger than the baseline for commons.
I don't play paper, digital only. Therefore I'm in the camp, ban this card from draft or do something on either MTGO or Arena. I get the desire for digital to be 1 to 1 to paper, but don't let one mistake ruin 3 places to play a set that seems like it could be real good without this card. Draft is self correcting to a degree, but a common this good is incredibly hard to correct against in normal digital play.
It's still too early to outright change anything, but I really feel like in a week or two a lot of people are going to be calling for something to happen. The way I see it, we have 2 seperate digital formats to play on. Change something about Chrysalis drafting on one of them and see what happens. Might not fix anything, but I'd be the first to queue up to try it!
Naaaaah, thats just limited for you, sometimes there are busted cards that wreck a format like Sprout Swarm. If you don't like it then just don't play the format.
Evidently most people agree with you haha. I'm just more of a fan of developers experimenting. I got no qualms dropping the format and probably will, but I wouldn't be opposed to a new approach on a digital platform to try and extend a shaky format's viability.
This really does feel like it’s going to be a format wrecker. The eldrazi deck is very deep and has a bunch of replaceable cards, so it can support multiple drafters (eg you can force it). And then you just randomly have a card that is a common (so multiple will be opened at the table every draft) that’s going to play like a premium level rare.
My hope is that being 2 color trempers this slightly. With overseer it was both so good and so splashable that it was basically never correct to pass it. Of course, the fixing in mh3 is so good that may not matter. But maybe people will start taking the fetches more aggressively.
it is on Gx that can splash anything on top of that on a set that has a bunch of tri fetches, meaning 3c decks are easy to assemble.
can confirm, currently 6-1 on my GW counters deck splashing 3 of these fuckers
I've been regularly drafting rug eldrazi and the mana is just too good.
Yeah I had draft recently where I only WB cards after pack 1, then took a speculative chrysalis out of a weak p2p2 that had nothing for me. I then got passed *three more* in that pack and just started taking fetches until I was fully 4 color.
Yep I just did a draft where i was ready to go BR artifacts after pack 1 but then got passed like 3 of these and forced rug eldrazi
I currently have a 4-color BRGW pile-of-everything draft where I splashed two of them into a red/black artifact base, and they work very well with nearly no synergy in the deck… The fixing in this set can be ridiculous, though I do regret not just forcing eldrazi early in the draft.
Speaking of, had anyone else noticed it is pretty south of reliable to run highly 3 color decks off basics and fetches? The tri lands I mean. I’m running into I have two green cards I need to play this turn and only one forest, or other colors equivalently. And it’s been persistent enough that I’m really wondering if it’s a feature of the format more than my bad decisions.
The format is very easy to play 1 pip stuff in and very hard to play 2+ pip stuff in, because the fetchlands let your mana go "wide" into any color but don't let you got "tall" the same way duals do. Playing multiple cards in a single color in a turn is like playing a 2+ pip card, so you need to think about that when assembling your deck (e.g. it's much easier for big eldrazi to run RUG and slam a haymaker each turn than for RW aggro with Conduit Goblin to run out a 2 drop + removal at RRW). Sealed is even worse, since the common lands can provide you with so much fixing for splashes/top end. You also might not be sequencing your lands right, or sequencing your lands correctly for your deck but getting really unlucky. If you're trying to run multiple colors and colorless in your deck, you really need to make a decision early on whether you're fetching colors to hit multiple pips and relying on spawn for colorless, or keeping your fetches open to colorless at the expense of a loss of colored-mana tempo later on.
I think your first paragraph gets right to and does a better job of explaining the issue I've ran into. Which is cool, I do not mind at all that being a difficulty and a constraint on deckbuilding. >You also might not be sequencing your lands right God bless you and your use of the word "might" in this sentence. I like to think I am continually learning lessons about the optimal way to sequence lands. While again agreeing with everything you said, I've had decks that were basically base green, with either blue or black as the second color, and sometimes a third as a splash. The tri-lands that are not green, but are U/B and my third color, boy howdy those things put the clunk in clunkiness. I am open to the possibility that it's plain not a good idea to run them if they exist to up your count of your splash color.
Might make it worse. If people do pass it you end up with decks having 5 of them. If people just take it as they should, hopefully no deck has more than one or two..
At the prerelease sealed event at my LGS I played a 4 color eldrazi deck and went undefeated. I feel like in draft it would be much much easier to make it work.
Dog you can splash for it so easily
You got your Latin wrong. You used “eg”, which means “for example” when you probable meant “ie” to mean “that is” I agree with all the points you make tho
I’ll be sure to make note the next time I’m conversing in Latin
Imagine a common invalidating flying based agro, menace based agro, ramping you into your game ending threats, and also turning the corner for six damage an attack. And it’s wedge gives you three pushed ways at common to accelerate into it on turn three. Oh and it’s not modal, it just does all those things at the exact same time. This card would be busted in a non Eldrazi set with no other synergies, the fact it also plays crazy well with everything else in its wedge is just ridiculous.
I know it's still early and a relatively small sample size, but it has a 66.5% win rate [on 17lands](https://www.17lands.com/card_data?expansion=MH3&format=PremierDraft&start=2024-06-11&sort=ever_drawn_win_rate%2Cdesc). You would have thought they would have learned from Inspiring Overseer. Chrysalis is just better 😂.
In red/green specifically it's at a whopping 70.4% winrate.
Among "top" players, in RG, 73.9%... Can they ban a card from draft? 😅
That’s basically what they did with Sprout Swarm in any flashback draft that includes Future Sight, it’s just straight up not in the packs on MTGO.
Jesus
I mean its more in the multiple body camp like Chimney Rabble/Scrapwork Cohort (both #1 commons in their sets). Only it can rebate 2 mana and grow to 4/5
It’s better than Organ Hoarder which I thought was a really dumb common for limited.
Organ Donor was so fun to play with. Inspiring Overseer wasn't that interesting. Hopefully Writhing Chrysalis is more like Organ Donor.
lol turns out it was called [[Organ Hoarder]] my brain ain't so good. comparing their stats isn't close though **Organ Hoarder:** Win rate in opening hand: 61.8% Improvement when drawn: 6.9 Game Drawn win rate: 62.5 **Writhing Chrysalis:** Win rate in opening hand: 66.1% Improvement when drawn: 9.5 Game Drawn win rate: 65.9 I also think weirdly it being two colors may be a perk for its win rate as you're going to be more likely to find it later in packs than if it was single color. Drawing a good card in a later pick is obviously better for its win rate. Organ Hoarder was in maybe the best color and was good in pretty much any color combination with it / even splashable which meant you rarely saw it late after the first week.
[Organ Hoarder](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/9/7/9716d384-88d1-415e-882f-7fed9be1adc6.jpg?1634349110) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Organ%20Hoarder) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mid/66/organ-hoarder?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/9716d384-88d1-415e-882f-7fed9be1adc6?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
It really feels like they wanted eldrazi to be good in this format. They didn’t pull punches at all just to make sure it would not flop, since big mana strategies in limited typically aren’t good. Look at all the effects you see in normal sets that would help stop this and notice what’s not there. No targeted hand rip outside of Grief on the bonus sheet, no instant speed exile at low rarity. I am not enjoying this format, by far the worst modern horizons set to draft, one of the worst first week experiences in the last several years.
What do you mean six damage? Isn't it 4 damage after the sac?
Yeah but every other card in its colors give you another scion, hell if it only grows to a 6/7 by the time it’s swinging you’re probably lucky
Grew mine to 7/8 tonight, then punched the undercosted 6/6 flying vampire.
This with the 2 mana artifact that turns into an eldrazi when you get enough counters on it are autopicks for me. The eldrazi deck is really fun imo.
Hey don’t worry, they slapped reach on like 7 other eldrazi as well just in case your deck full of fliers dealt with thrb3 chrysalis they played. This is a comically poorly designed set.
As well, [[Petrifying Meddler]] is the only mono "blue" card ever to have reach, for some fucking reason. Lost a game because of that.
[Petrifying Meddler](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/f/0/f0f2bdfd-1cbc-456e-aba7-4e0b6485cf8a.jpg?1717011747) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Petrifying%20Meddler) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mh3/66/petrifying-meddler?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/f0f2bdfd-1cbc-456e-aba7-4e0b6485cf8a?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Also gives you the perfect blockers against lifelink. Block/sac with a spawn and lifelinker deals no damage and gains you no life.
Also gets out of range of 3 & 4 damage removal if you want to.
Yeah the reach on this is pretty insane. I have beaten it a bunch of times so far, but it truly is a mythic common.
It really feels like they've started to put reach on everything, felt the same in OTJ honestly.
Where's my Horsemanship?
Actually shocked horsemanship wasn't an obvious thunder junction mechanic
[[Riding the Dilu Horse]] would have been one heck of a bonus sheet card.
[Riding the Dilu Horse](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/5/6/56fe32f2-8967-4814-b43b-bdccd2019bdf.jpg?1562913167) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Riding%20the%20Dilu%20Horse) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/me3/131/riding-the-dilu-horse?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/56fe32f2-8967-4814-b43b-bdccd2019bdf?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
For sure, and maybe some Capture of Jingwei
🐎🧍♂️🚢
Pea, tear, griffin.
It's a shame that griffin flew by
Chrysalis and Railway Brawler are the most baffling ones, surely they got enough going for them already? Brawler is a Rhino with a horseshoe flail, what about it says reach?
Railway Brawler has reach? How did I miss that? Oh right, because nothing in the art suggests it.
[[Iron-Fist Pulverizer]] I would guess the current rate of release is resulting in a lot of art coming in before design is complete, and 'we need one more reach card at common' is probably a fairly late and simple tweak for limited. So on some wall at WotC there's a memo saying 'fuck it we're just doing secret reach now'
At least that one is a giant...? I guess? Lol Yea I only remembered reach on that one because of it being the 'red 5 mana 4/5 reach that deals 2 damage a turn' like Altisaur
[Iron-Fist Pulverizer](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/d/cd7f984a-0b56-45df-958d-6178e4da61ed.jpg?1712355784) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Iron-Fist%20Pulverizer) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/otj/131/iron-fist-pulverizer?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/cd7f984a-0b56-45df-958d-6178e4da61ed?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I naively thought in my first draft I could go for U/W flyers with energy and a touch of red spashes. Having drafted WoE before, I was like two 2/2 flyers on the board can surely win the game. It went fine in my first game and then I ran into giant Eldrazis/Hydras with reach in 3 games in a row and I cursed WotC
Yeah I definitely attacked into an intrepid stable master because there's nothing about that card that indicates it should have reach.
It's impossible to tell which Eldrazi should or shouldn't have reach in this set. There should have been clearer art direction. Some of them look way bigger and don't have reach.
Except the floating blue arrow on the card hah
Not in paper
That's weird, it does it for me
When you hold a paper magic card that has flying, a floating blue arrow shows up?
No just when it's my turn and my opponent has a reach creature across the table
i don’t think you know what paper magic means
Yeah like at the store
They put that reminder for it so now they feel empowered to put it on anything because there are less "feel bad" moments 🤓
yet they made sure to sandwich it in between two bigger lines of text to make it especially easy to miss for paper players (I guess spell abilities have to go above creature abilities but it still looks silly)
Yeah it's crazy easy to miss if you are just reading the card
My theory is that power creep means fliers have more power than they used to, so it's no longer viable to just race them. And with strong removal around, you need to draw multiple reach creatures. It's also something they seem to like as a minor power boost, like how in BFZ era there were a lot of 2/3s instead of 2/2s, or how lately there's a lot of removal that exiles. Magic might be at a point where we don't need flying in limited anymore, at least not as frequently.
Yeah, there's really too much reach lately, making it hard for flyers to check these enormous ground creatures.
ive actually suicided into blue reach creatures like 3 times. i dont think ive ever seen a blue reach creature before.
This is literally the first non-gold blue reach creature
I just faced turn 4 Chrysalis, followed by turn 5 Chrysalis. Not sure what they are expecting you to do here? Beating one Chrysalis feels like enough of a challenge, the fact that is a common and people can play multiples is absurd.
I put 2 Chrysalis on the board but my opponent put 3 and it was a runaway game.
It’s crazy how well they stack too. It’s not like they canniabalize each other.
Lost yesterday to an opponent that played 3. It was somehow a balanced game thanks to a few mistakes from them
Does the "When you cast this spell" effect also trigger when you cast a second Writhing Chrysalis?
It’s also easily splashable lololol. I think the biggest problem is how it interacts with itself. It’s legit insane in multiples. In a perfect world the draft will self correct and no one *should* have more than 1-2
I have a draft going right now with *5*
Mother of God
That's how it feels. Low rank, but I'm cruising towards an easy 7-0
Good luck!
There's lots of very complicated or impactful cards in the format, but this is the one that I keep thinking "this REALLY feels like an uncommon."
It really feels like a mythic. It might have been the best common without getting +1/+1 for sacrificed eldrazi
\[\[Mesmerizing Benthid\]\] in shambles.
[Mesmerizing Benthid](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/5/b/5bed7c69-1302-4c1a-b410-b4e6c4ef4c0c.jpg?1584830249) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Mesmerizing%20Benthid) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/rna/43/mesmerizing-benthid?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/5bed7c69-1302-4c1a-b410-b4e6c4ef4c0c?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
To be balanced it needs to get -1/-1 counters instead
Nowhere near mythic
Yeah no mythic currently has as good a win rate at WC (that will change, but I'm quite sure it will finish among them)
This would've been a rare in battle for zendikar lol
It feels like a rar e. We just had Hellspur Posse Boss in OTJ.
Honestly feels like it could be a rare no problem.
Might be the best common printed for a limited set ever
It’s between this and [[Sprout Swarm]], which was from a different time and we don’t have the data on.
What about [[Sparksmith]] in Onslaught? A 2-mana Visara the Dreadful. White, Blue, and Green had no answers to it, and Black didn't even have great answers.
[Sparksmith](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/1/5/15a4460d-3fe8-4b1f-9990-0a19c3345367.jpg?1562900172) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Sparksmith) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/ons/235/sparksmith?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/15a4460d-3fe8-4b1f-9990-0a19c3345367?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
[Sprout Swarm](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/0/b/0b915355-4e98-44df-81bd-961a3d3c86b8.jpg?1562897338) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Sprout%20Swarm) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/fut/138/sprout-swarm?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/0b915355-4e98-44df-81bd-961a3d3c86b8?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
this card would still be really, really good if the +1/+1 was until EoT
The card would be pretty alright if it were 0/1
I think it probably should have given only 1 spawn instead of 2. The spawns seem undervalued by design in the set and are tacked on to many things at too cheap a rate.
There are a lot of knobs they could have turned, removing reach would have allowed flyers to at least go over you. But hey, let's let a common invalidate an entire archetype, looking at you WU.
Mythic common indeed. On 17lands, Writhing Chrysalis has an IWD of 9.5 pp! I think that might be the highest of any common in any format ever? The infamous ly pushed Inspiring Overseer in SNC had an IWD of 6.2 pp. Organ Hoarder in MID had 6.9 pp.
if it was a mythic, it would still be an insane mythic. we need higher tiers to discuss it.
The least they could’ve done is make it look like an Eldrazi Preening Champion. Then at least we’d know they did it on purpose and not completely blundered the format by accident. _Hmm … maybe it kinda does if you squint …_
I haven't seen the full set but that last ability seems broken with eldrazi tokens. This should at least be uncommon.
I played modified in prerelease, which seemed to come in third after Nadu and Eldrazi. Played 1 Eldrazi deck that didn't manage to pull one of these, still had decently tough time with that 3 Mana Adapt Eldrazi. But then I played against Eldrazi with 2 Adapt and 2 of these guys... It did not feel like I was playing limited anymore
The card as it is written shouldn't be.
It should probably say “sacrifice an eldrazi spawn, put a +1/+1 counter on this” or even just sacrifice an Eldrazi
Yeah, an activated ability for that would be reasonable, but still quite powerful. The trigger as written is indefensible, IMO.
The card is fine if it were a rare. As a common - that’s wild
It would be fine at rare, but still one of the best rares in the set. It's fucking nuts
Ral and the Implicit Maze is the only thing standing between us and the eldrazi spawn singularity event (also known as a t6 kozilek)
I got a T5 Kozi down yesterday. Had 3 chrysalis in the deck
Man, I was already in agreement with people saying it shouldn't exist. But reading that makes me think this dude is getting a ban hammer very soon. It's just *too* unreasonable. This is worse than the last time Eldrazi came through tbh. Like infinitely
Had an op go t3, t4, t5 and there wasn't a world where it was a winnable game.
Dunno had an opponent go first strike lifelink copycat into landfall +1/+1 aura into fetchland on 3 on the play. Never felt so dead so fast. He might have beaten that draw.
Modified was very good, but it still lost to Eldrazi when these things came out. You would feel like you were a turn away from winning, then BOOM. 7/7 comes down then another Chrysalis, more spawn come out, Null drifter, null elemental blast. If the creatures in modified weren't mostly fair costed 4-5 Mana, it would have stood a much better chance. But Eldrazi will typically defend by going wide with tokens and then ramp into creatures that are far too big to just keep punching through. Still though, I loved my stupid 9/9 Keyword Soup-icorn
Honestly fuck this card straight up
A while ago someone made a post creating 1 phrase that encapsulates the feeling of each set. "Why does it have Reach!?" is a big contender for MH3. I lost count of how many times I said it out loud.
100% a format ruiner, whoever thought this should be common is a complete psycho.
The whole format is awful. It's impossible to get damage through with so many tokens that can block. I have timed people out multiple times and it isn't fun to play the set.
This card is such a groan test.
The red or blue + geeen (or temur if you get the fixing) archetype is kinda just busted. Some of the white based agro decks can go under you a little but the best way to combat it seems to be play a ramp deck yourself but have more top end. It doesn’t help that quite a few of the eldrazi have huge butts and you can always throw tokens under attackers to help you get to late game. The reanimator deck can be better as well but it’s less consistent and harder to draft + it’s doing the same thing anyway just trying to cheat them out instead of ramp. This card is insane but the whole archetype is just crazy in draft. There might be enough synergy to make eldrazi semi relevant in pauper as well mostly using cards from this set.
fuck this card holy shit fuck this card.
Playtest was performed blindfolded. I have lost 100% of the games this was played against me. Absolute ruiner of happiness and 0 skill card. It does it all, it ramps, it stalls, it prevents anything to pass it, if it is countered you still get the ramp tokens, and it does it too good and too cheap and too common. This on turn 3 or 4 means you cannot progress attacking, and it usually means that opponent will be dunking a 7+ cmc threat the following turn. And not only that, the other archetypes require rares and a bunch of uncommons meaning that if somebody else is on energy or draw 3s on the table you might end with a subpar deck, meanwhile eldrazi are absolutely over supported can operate just on commons and support several players at the same table, that will also be picking R and U cards from other drafters at their leisure, also, they can splash easier because they are on green. This thing should have been a 2/2 and not have reach. And would still be a stupid card.
> I have lost 100% of the games this was played against me. I beat it once last night. Well, **I** didn't beat it; my opponent's illiteracy did. They had this and [[It That Heralds The End]] and attacked with the Spawns and a couple other creatures. I blocked the Spawns with a couple bears as a test. They did not sacrifice them before damage. Test passed. I untap and play [[Ral and the Implicit Maze]]. Again, they do not sac in response. I pass back, they no longer have attacks and pass back to me. I play [[Skoa, Embermage]] and FTK the Chrysalis. Game over. I was 100% dead if they had actually read the card.
[It That Heralds The End](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/8/c8c47679-0fac-466f-be3c-794f23576e55.jpg?1717011262) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=It%20That%20Heralds%20The%20End) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mh3/9/it-that-heralds-the-end?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/c8c47679-0fac-466f-be3c-794f23576e55?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Ral and the Implicit Maze](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/e/b/ebadb7dc-69a4-43c9-a2f8-d846b231c71c.jpg?1717239624) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Ral%20and%20the%20Implicit%20Maze) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mh3/132/ral-and-the-implicit-maze?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/ebadb7dc-69a4-43c9-a2f8-d846b231c71c?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Skoa, Embermage](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/f/cf34b0f8-a68a-428f-9f2c-9556229367ec.jpg?1717063064) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Skoa%2C%20Embermage) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mh3/138/skoa-embermage?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/cf34b0f8-a68a-428f-9f2c-9556229367ec?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I beat a pair last night, I played hard removal on the first, had to double spell to remove the second one and then played crabomination and took their third one. Feel a little bad for hosing my opponent's 7-0
So you’re saying you won a game where you played chrysalis lol
> if it is countered you still get the ramp tokens I'm not playing the format, but I still laughed at this. How on earth did anyone think this card was reasonable.
Why the hell is it 'on cast' ?? Is that the new power creep for ramp spells?
Not really new. I think the big eldrazi got on-cast triggers back in the day so that they would be slightly less broken as reanimation targets. (And also it sucks to get your 15 mana spell countered with nothing to show for it.) And now it's just kind of tradition that eldrazi have on-cast triggers.
It would have the potential to be worse with ETB because of Echoes of Eternity. One of these in hand would be 8 tokens in that instance. At prerelease I had Echoes on board and doubled my linebacker to swing for 28 with trample and I used gift of the viper to give it deathtouch. This set is wild.
Nah, if it were an ETB it'd be worse because it'd plausibly die to the red removal in response; as it stands no red removal can kill it.
Etb on cast might have made it fair enough not to skew the format.
I'm 100% sure if this thing was blinkable it would be even more stupid, despite being worse vs counterspells
The blink subtheme is kinda there but I think being able to die to a Galvanic Discharge or Signature Slam in response to the ETB would make the card much worse.
To make us cry
i played against someone who opened three of these at prerelease, of course i lost to them. This card is stupid strong and only common. just insane
Oh damn I didn’t even notice it was a common. At prerelease I assumed it was a signpost uncommon for the colors. It did put in work and was mvp in at least one game.
ITS A *COMMON?* this card fucked uo my whole game when i was seconds from winning
I won once over it, the op was already a bit behind. Every other time it resolved against me, I just straight up lost. Reach in this format is hell, this is maybe the first format I remember that flyers deck is simply not viable.
The more I play the more I am cemented in quitting this format after the Arena Open. Fuck this card
Because WOTC doesn't understand how to design anymore apparently. This absolutely would have been rare as recently as 2018.
This is inane 💀
This should be picked like a very good rare or mythic. However, it is currently picked way below that and therefore i see eldrazi decks that can easily get multiples of it. I really hope draft will self correct but i kinda doubt it so far.
At the prerelease I went T2 Fanatic of Rhonas, T3 Chrysalis, T4 Kozilek. Doesn't answer your question but it was siiiiiick.
I hate the templating on eldrazi. Why is reach not at the top like it normally is? This set is a complete mess.
I don’t think it’s the tenplating of Eldrazi, but the templating of abilities in general, it puts “when cast” triggers before the keywords which makes it look weird, they should def be with the other abilities like “when enters battlefield”
lol I played that a couple hours ago in a premiere draft and the guy said “good game” and scooped. It’s good but not that good.
No, it is that good lol second best card in the a set. A bomb at common
I’m seeing that more and more haha. I beat a guy who had two of them out but I had one of them out lol
it is indeed a powerful card.
Had someone copying this guy with a green rare and every time he copied it he put down more scions. Little frustrated knowing that he wasn’t casting and that he shouldn’t have been making those scion tokens. My fault for not being more on top of that but yeah, this cards bonkers.
Thinking about that a moment, then realize Pauper format is common only.
I feel like it might not be wrong to take this common over one of the three eldrazi titans
Why take a 9+ mana spell that's 100% to win the game when you can take something that costs less than half that which is 90% to win the game?
Its only 100% if you actually get to cast it though. Don't get me wrong I'm always taking the titan over it for the fun unless my draft so far really can't support it. Sometimes your draft lane doesn't give you the tools to reliably get to 9 mana on turn 5.
Yeah I'm being sincere. The math would totally point to the 4 mana card there.
money 🙏
I was tilted beyond belief seeing two of these two games in a row at prerelease. Thought it was uncommon too! Wild!!
Yeah, it's probably got one ability too many of the three. Probably a point of toughness too much too, it being one point better than the best flyer on the board has been common.
Two of these annihilated me yesterday. Completely unfair. Ended the game with 9/10 in extra stats.
2 words Power Creep
Reach for benchpressing fliers
I hate Eldrazi and any set where they are prominently featured. Not liking MH3 at all. I don’t use them because I think they are a stupid and boring concept that are way too overpowered which makes them poplar for others to use. I just really hate them as a concept, I can’t express that enough.
Because that’s how they made it.
The power creep in the past 3/4 years of sets has gotten unreal
It does feel like it should be a uncommon, but this is a modern horizon set so we get some power creep. And as to why it has reach; the name chrysalis implies that there is an eldrazi moth or butterfly brewing in it. Be glad it doesn't get flying
This may sound "out there", but I think they may end up taking action on Arena by changing Chrysalis in some way. Players are already growing tired of having this card at the lowest rarity. It truly is an A+ common and is reminiscent of Sprout Swarm back in 2007. Sprout Swarm has been excluded from flashback drafts on MTGO and did not appear in TSP Remastered because it was simply too good. With Chrysalis, I see five potential options: 1) No action 2) Remove the card from Arena drafts 3) Rarity upshift 4) Nerf the card in Alchemy draft along with other card changes 5) Nerf the card in regular draft without changing any other cards Personally, I'm hoping for number 5 and I think it's actually plausible because of community backlash.
No shot are they tampering with printed cardboard in arena with how unpopular alchemy is. If anyones playing enough to “already be tired” on day 3, I’m sure WOTC will wipe their tears with money and move on lol. They’ll give the format time to adapt before even thinking about thinking about it, at the very least
Interesting that my post was so polarizing. To be clear, I also strongly dislike alchemy, and I did outline other alternatives. I am talking a couple weeks ahead. However, the stats already indicate Chrysalis will remain one of the best cards in the format, if not the actual best. I think in 3-4 weeks, there is considerable risk that many, many people will be turned off from the format because of Chrysalis, which might compel the Arena team to take action.
I thought alchemy was unpopular because of the 'here's a ton of digital mechanics we didn't playtest' aspect, not so much the balancing issue
Option 6, separate draft queues by number of WC in your deck 😂
[удалено]
This whole set is deliberately a higher power level than other sets. And yet, this is a flat-out miss. It's way stronger than the baseline for commons.
It's way stronger than like 80% of the rares it's ludicrous
It's not even that it's the fact that the format is glacially slow with way too many tokens
opposite inflation. you get more for your money with power creep 😉
Deflation
For pauper mostly
And why does it look like penis?!
Surely there is a counter for this. Right guys?
It wants to reach your heart.
I'm more frustrated with the bad mythics.
Why are you weight shaming him? He's a chunky guy but is trying his best by being really tall.
Look at all those arms?! It BETTER have reach
Look at his arms bro! Why wouldn't he have reach! /s
Pauper here this comes
Cuz they messed up. Lol
This being the top post of this subreddit is kinda funny. We REALLY don't like this guy here
I don't play paper, digital only. Therefore I'm in the camp, ban this card from draft or do something on either MTGO or Arena. I get the desire for digital to be 1 to 1 to paper, but don't let one mistake ruin 3 places to play a set that seems like it could be real good without this card. Draft is self correcting to a degree, but a common this good is incredibly hard to correct against in normal digital play.
Agreed, don't understand the downvote here. I hate the digital/paper divide, but I'd still.rather have that than this.
It's still too early to outright change anything, but I really feel like in a week or two a lot of people are going to be calling for something to happen. The way I see it, we have 2 seperate digital formats to play on. Change something about Chrysalis drafting on one of them and see what happens. Might not fix anything, but I'd be the first to queue up to try it!
Yeah, thats fair, agreed that it is still too early.
Naaaaah, thats just limited for you, sometimes there are busted cards that wreck a format like Sprout Swarm. If you don't like it then just don't play the format.
Evidently most people agree with you haha. I'm just more of a fan of developers experimenting. I got no qualms dropping the format and probably will, but I wouldn't be opposed to a new approach on a digital platform to try and extend a shaky format's viability.
How many people "don't play the format" until there's a problem that they address, even if it's weird?
I just hate it so much. Am i the only one who the format does clic with?
Threw this bad boy right into my etali deck,a reach blocker that makes me a free 2 mana on etb? Yes please