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Ok, perhaps I was a little too hasty there

White did lose Savannah Lions

Black did get Distress. Assassinate can kill platinum angel as well.

Pithing needle helps dredge quite a bit.

Persecute is still gone.

Why not Phage, indeed?

1. There are a lot of black cards that are much more potent for a lower mana cost.

2. The card has no intrinsic evasion abilities, or even trample for that matter. By the time you get him out, there's bound to be blockers. Thus, his most useful ability is going to be the second one.
However, there are way more efficient ways to kill off creatures late game than with Phage; AOW is a far better late-game substitute for that (and possibly a MUCH cheaper one as well.)

3. By the time Phage gets out, a late-game deck running black should be just about ready to pull its wincon. It should not need Phage's third ability to end the game. The creature would need to be given trample, shadow, fear, or flying just to make Phage remotely playable. Thus, unless you're building a deck around it or running a shadow deck (which, if done right, should have ended the game long before Phage is a viable option), the card is just far too narrow to be of use when you actually need it.

4. Delay.

As much as I hate to do so, I must agree with BB on this one. He's pretty worthless, except maybe in a draft.

Hidden Horror would be a blast if Basking Rootwalla were still around, but that is not the case and the only Madness guy he's worth playing with will kill him upon resolution unless the opponent's already moved some zig, and in the kind of deck running HH that shouldn't happen.

After thinking about last week's FNM I've concluded a few things(all pertaining to standard):

Mogg fanatic is 10x better than kird ape

Blue hurts just as much as black because Cancel is inferior to rewind and mana leak (not to mention it was already legal ITCS to begin with).

Persecute can't be replaced, but since I hear rumors Lorwyn will encourage mono colored decks, I think I can live with that. It would suck if black was in standard what blue is in Vintage. I'm all for playing black, but requiring you play a color for specific cards is just dumb.

Platinum angel+academy ruins is the kind of mini combo that makes me want to punch a wall.

The black manland is the only one that's completely unplayable.

Graveborn Muse doesn't curve out as well as Phyrexian arena. For example, a typical game with my BW deck will go
turn 1 Shrine
Turn 2 land, castigate
turn 3 land Phyrexian Arena
Turn 4 WoG or some 4 drop (probably ghost council)

Not only does the muse screw up my curve, but it dies to:
Incinerate
Lightning Helix
Seal of fire+mogg fanatic
Shock+mogg fanatic
Sudden Shock
Sudden Death
Cruel Edict
WoG
Damnation
Rift Bolt
Last Gasp
A blocker
An attacker
Durkwood Tracker
Char
Psi Blast
Fiery Temper
Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
3x Prodigal Pyromancer
3x Prodigal Sorcerer
Pongify
Moonlace+Terror
Essence Drain
Cradle to Grave
Premature Burial
Avatar of Woe
Plagued Rusalka+Festering Goblin+BBB
Lots of other stuff both in and out of standard.

Quirion Dryad is just not fair. Green already has Tarmagoyf in standard. Do they really need more cheap beats?

As far as my deck goes,CoP red was no big loss. It never came in handy for me because I have Hide//Seek to combat the dragonstorm that I've never played. Grull doesn't need red to kill you, they've got 'goyf, not to mention Burning tree shaman kind of takes care of the whole CoP plan. the sligh I've played against uses enough weenies and burn to make CoP red slightly less useful. Replacing it will Terrors at the last minute actually worked out, as topdecking Terror killed Tarmagoyf with a moldervine cloak on it. Topdecking CoP red would've made me cry.