Danse Macabre Previews

DeathInABottle wrote:

When I look at Instantaneous Transformation, I don't think, "Oh good, another way for my unnamed deck to destroy pool." I don't think that because more-of-the-same deck design is boring as sin. Instead, I look at it and think, "Xendil and Malabranca and Mugur are all of a sudden playable, and I can't wait to try designing decks around them."

Edit to add: I actually don't love the icon for the set, but it's only because it's bright white. If it was off-white or grey or something not quite so glaring, it'd work really well. ...And I suppose, since I'll be printing these cards myself, that I could go ahead and make that change myself!

I don't like that it seems that multi-acting is the only way in this game to make things better (or "make decks work"). If the answer to any given weakness in the game is multi-acting, somthing goes terribly wrong, don't you think?.

Coming soon to the TWDA: even more unnamed enkil cog decks.

Still not likely to see tourney play: !Gangrel (except Enkidu who now torps/burns your blocker shadow boxes to his real torp/burn target and untaps for free afterwards)

About Instantaneous Transformation, I was just thinking this.
There are four Assamites with pro, and they're all in G4 or G5!
Though sadly Jamal is the only one with super pro, and its not like smites are generally short of stealth options to play it at basic...
Still, how about Jamal gets Tasha, untaps with I.S. at PRO/CEL, bleeds for 3 with Flurry of Action, untaps with Flurry, then votes a Reckless Agitation (he has two votes and OBF PRE) for 5... just sayin...

my thoughts on Instantenous Transformation are as follows:
I like it as a simple design, the effects are very straightforward which is very good
I don't like that it further blurrs differences between disciplines.
I think Stanislava and Enkidu decks don't care much about it, they already have a way to untap which is the main effect of this card.
Unnamed would be happy, we will probably see some more of it on tournaments, which is neither good or bad. It was a solid deck but not a powerhouse, now it will become slightly better. Unnamed would probably remain bleed deck, so new card would just replace flurry of action. So still bleed and untap, now more versatile
Adana the Sforza is happy which is very good becouse there was no tournament level deck around with him as a star.
Mugur, Jamal, Malabranca, Xendil and some other vampires are better now, which is very good becouse they didn't see much play. Now there is hope for a change. I alreaedy saw very promising decks featuring f.e. Mugur and Xendil; this card was missing to make them tournament level.
Some new vampires would probably have the needed disciplines which is good for them.
What is very good for some vampires and star decks is still missing for Gangrel! generally. They don't have good way for ousting with three supporting disciplines and 0 purely offensive or defensive. But there is still a lot of not known cards in Danse Macabre. And in case nothing spectacular will show up, new cards can be a base for a permanents based !gangrel deck, but this won't probably be good enough to win big tournaments

Count wrote:

Instantaneous Transformation is troubling: It's effects are too similar to Freak Drive and Force March, and tt benefits star vampires with these disciplines more than the Gangrel! who need the real boost.

Totally disagree. As noted before, the star vampires already have these capabilities, at most this is a card that they might include a few copies of in decks. On the other hand, the City Gangrel distinctly lack *both* of what's now offered here: free stealth and an untap option. I see this as a very nice boost to (City) !Gangrel, who, apart from a few star vampires, aren't all that hot at the moment.

I started thinking about a deck centered around Synner-G and Xendil with Luke Fellows an obvious support.

Synner gets Camera Phones and/or Laptops (they don't work together, but the idea isn't to get everyone both). Should also try and get J.S. Simmons and Tasha Morgan. Heidelberg them around, play Instantaneous Transformation and finish with Enticement. Get through with lots of stealth and Form of Mist. Defend with Abbot and Under Siege.

Not tier 1, but should be nice enough.

Or maybe Hartmut Stover and Malabranca should go for some Loki's Gift voting action? Multiacting with Hartmut should be fun.