To fix it i would just have the lands be replaced by a basic land, and have it destroy 1 non-basic land per player. It would solve being 5 Stone Rains targeted at the single WUBRG player, and allow it to hit the problematic lands. With those, it might even be fine to leave in the blink shenanigans.
After watching the video, it seems the main issues are 1. Lack of interactability, 2. Strength with blink and etb effects, and 3. Catching lower power players/strategies (i.e those with basic lands) while not hitting those that tend to be stronger (non basic lands). To fix these issues I propose this change to its text: "When [Cardname] enters the battlefield, for each color choose a different land that could produce mana of that color. Put a Mark counter on each of those lands. When [Cardname] dies, exile it instead. When you do, destroy each permanent with a Mark counter." To me this seems to fix all of those issues. It increases interactability on both ends, the player playing it has more control on who they do or don't hit, defending players have time to respond and stop it (such as by using their marked lands, removing the counters, exiling the Titan themselves, etc.). Plus, this allows non-basic lands to be targeted and increases the chance for stronger Dual lands to be hit. This also allows the player to use a bit of responsibility and if there's only 1 white player at the table and they're not doing so well, they can just keep targeting the same Plains to not hit them as much. This also allows more politicing and choices when targeting lands. Blink and extra enters strategies are still strong as they allow you to Mark more lands, but aren't busted in that there are more chances to respond. It also allows an interesting choice, do you try and keep the Titan around to hit more lands but risk it getting stopped, or sac it immediately to get your lower but confirmed payoff. Also, it gives room for more creativity in deck building, I would love to see a jank counter deck that tries to move the mark counters onto creatures or something like that. Some additional changes that I could see are: adding colorless to the list of mana types to Mark (also better chance of hitting the player that is playing it, plus more casual players tend not to have lands that produce specifically colorless), or not exiling it when it dies to potentially allow Reanimater shenanigans. However, with a card like this, I think a lower power level is always better while still making it a somewhat viable option. Great video as always, keep it up!
Also small flavor win, only in defeating it (it dying) do things get destroyed, so you can defeat it, but that is what triggers the destruction leaving nothing to be saved.
The problem with land destruction is people tend not to recognize there are 2 major types, Mass land destruction and Targeted land destruction, and lump them together. Targeted is very good and healthy for the game, some lands shouldn't be aloud to exist unchecked (Cabal Coffers, Field of the Dead, ect). Mass land destruction just stops people from playing, and while stax effects can make for an interesting puzzle, it rarely makes for a fun game, and probably shouldn't exist in random pods without a good discussion to set expectations. The biggest problem with Sundering Titan is, while it is Targeted land destruction, it doesn't allow you to destroy the most problematic lands without jumping threw hoops, and instead punishes lower power strategies on a repeatable body, and even if removed punishes the players again.
As the text never mentions the words target. It having shroud or hexproof would do nothing. Those effects only prevent targeting and since sundering titan doesn't target the only way to protect a land it can target is for that land to be indestructible.
You can certainly tap any of your lands for mana once Sundering Titan’s ability goes on the stack, but the selection of the lands to be destroyed by the ability happens as part of the ability resolving. You wouldn’t know which lands would be destroyed at the time you could tap them, so to be sure you’re getting all the mana you can out of them you’d need to tap everything. - chillybin
I think having some lands destruction is fine. At least for me, I err on the side of not wanting to play in games with mass land destruction. Only because I like to cast spells and if I was a new player and played in a pod with that, I could be tempted to not play again.
That first experience of a player joining in is really important. Get them several games in before you whack out combo into no one having lands at all, ie: mycosynth lattice -> Nevinyrral's disc! - Gramps
To fix it i would just have the lands be replaced by a basic land, and have it destroy 1 non-basic land per player. It would solve being 5 Stone Rains targeted at the single WUBRG player, and allow it to hit the problematic lands. With those, it might even be fine to leave in the blink shenanigans.
Loving the show y'all!
I used to play a deck with 4 Tooth and Nail, Kikki Jiki/ sundering Tiran and other combos back in the days when Mirrodin set was "Standard"
After watching the video, it seems the main issues are 1. Lack of interactability, 2. Strength with blink and etb effects, and 3. Catching lower power players/strategies (i.e those with basic lands) while not hitting those that tend to be stronger (non basic lands). To fix these issues I propose this change to its text:
"When [Cardname] enters the battlefield, for each color choose a different land that could produce mana of that color. Put a Mark counter on each of those lands.
When [Cardname] dies, exile it instead. When you do, destroy each permanent with a Mark counter."
To me this seems to fix all of those issues. It increases interactability on both ends, the player playing it has more control on who they do or don't hit, defending players have time to respond and stop it (such as by using their marked lands, removing the counters, exiling the Titan themselves, etc.). Plus, this allows non-basic lands to be targeted and increases the chance for stronger Dual lands to be hit. This also allows the player to use a bit of responsibility and if there's only 1 white player at the table and they're not doing so well, they can just keep targeting the same Plains to not hit them as much. This also allows more politicing and choices when targeting lands. Blink and extra enters strategies are still strong as they allow you to Mark more lands, but aren't busted in that there are more chances to respond. It also allows an interesting choice, do you try and keep the Titan around to hit more lands but risk it getting stopped, or sac it immediately to get your lower but confirmed payoff. Also, it gives room for more creativity in deck building, I would love to see a jank counter deck that tries to move the mark counters onto creatures or something like that.
Some additional changes that I could see are: adding colorless to the list of mana types to Mark (also better chance of hitting the player that is playing it, plus more casual players tend not to have lands that produce specifically colorless), or not exiling it when it dies to potentially allow Reanimater shenanigans. However, with a card like this, I think a lower power level is always better while still making it a somewhat viable option. Great video as always, keep it up!
Also small flavor win, only in defeating it (it dying) do things get destroyed, so you can defeat it, but that is what triggers the destruction leaving nothing to be saved.
The problem with land destruction is people tend not to recognize there are 2 major types, Mass land destruction and Targeted land destruction, and lump them together. Targeted is very good and healthy for the game, some lands shouldn't be aloud to exist unchecked (Cabal Coffers, Field of the Dead, ect). Mass land destruction just stops people from playing, and while stax effects can make for an interesting puzzle, it rarely makes for a fun game, and probably shouldn't exist in random pods without a good discussion to set expectations. The biggest problem with Sundering Titan is, while it is Targeted land destruction, it doesn't allow you to destroy the most problematic lands without jumping threw hoops, and instead punishes lower power strategies on a repeatable body, and even if removed punishes the players again.
You can tap the lands in response to the ability, you just can't fizzle the ability by giving the lands hexproof or shroud
As the text never mentions the words target. It having shroud or hexproof would do nothing. Those effects only prevent targeting and since sundering titan doesn't target the only way to protect a land it can target is for that land to be indestructible.
You can certainly tap any of your lands for mana once Sundering Titan’s ability goes on the stack, but the selection of the lands to be destroyed by the ability happens as part of the ability resolving. You wouldn’t know which lands would be destroyed at the time you could tap them, so to be sure you’re getting all the mana you can out of them you’d need to tap everything.
- chillybin
I think having some lands destruction is fine. At least for me, I err on the side of not wanting to play in games with mass land destruction.
Only because I like to cast spells and if I was a new player and played in a pod with that, I could be tempted to not play again.
That first experience of a player joining in is really important. Get them several games in before you whack out combo into no one having lands at all, ie: mycosynth lattice -> Nevinyrral's disc! - Gramps
@@casualcompliance exactly!! 100% agree
Yo what if it was “destroy a random land for each basic land type among lands in play” then it can hit any land including yours. RNG-mageddon
RNG-mageddon is iconic.
I vote for you to be in the next design team that is rad!