Sphinxes, Demons, and Gorgons, Oh My! Part 2: Multicolored Cards and Artifacts

September 19, 2012 By 1 Comment

Now for the multi-colored cards.

So you know how Smother is a good card? Wizards looked at the card and thought, “we could do better”. The end result is a Smother that can kill almost anything and can’t be countered. This card rocks. I mean black decks are going to splash green just for this card and vice versa. One of the best kill spells ever printed and will probably see play all the way to Vintage and Classic. SOOO GOOD.

Armada Wurm

 2ggww
Creature – Wurm Mythic Rare
Trample
When Armada Wurm enters the battlefield put a 5/5 Wurm creature token with trample onto the battlefield.
5/5

 

This is going to both play and function very similarly to Broodmate Dragon and just like the dragons you can bet this card sees play. Like I have mentioned several times, the Type 2 environment is running low on usable six drops and this card fills that void perfectly. Broodmate Dragon was awesome because it was 8 power for six equally distributed across two bodies with flying. Armada Wurm rocks because you are getting 10 power for six equally distributed across two bodies with trample. I think that trade for more power and tramps for flying is a great trade and this card definitely going to be knocking some skulls.

Watchwolf is getting reprinted. Except this time it also functions with all token doubling effects including Parallel Lives, Doubling Season, Rhys, and of course populate. Cool card but still not completely sold on its superiority to the Wolf. Either way, good card that will see play.

Three drop counterspells while not as efficient as their two drop counterparts are absolutely just as powerful. Counterflux is an incredibly powerful spell for multiple reasons. First off it is uncounterable. An uncounterable counterspell for three fantastic. Now an uncounterable counterspell for three which for one mana more can also become an uncounterable counterspell for four which also counters every other spell on the stack is absolutely amazing. Say that ten times fast. Anyway, a card that is both powerful and versatile. It’s definitely going to be a big player in the inevitable American Control deck that’s bound to show up.

That same American Control deck will be benefitting from this bad boy. An O-Ring that can also deal with a field full of angel or spirit tokens is sweet. While definitely more powerful than Oblivion Ring I am sure that the more restrictive mana cost will lead to O-Ring still seeing play.

I gotta love my big blue spells. An instant that tutors up for pretty much any three instances of your choice is my kind of spell. If you build your deck right this should be able to provide you answers for almost every possible situation, especially now with overload spells that have small casting costs but big abilities. Such a sweet card that gets me to excited to see some new strategies from blue.

Speaking of tutors…

This card is absolutely perfect for any and all reanimator decks. Being able to grab a Huntmaster and at the same time being able to dump a Griselbrand in the yard is too much of a value to pass up with a reanimation spell in hand. That paired with scavenge and other graveyard effects lead to this card being a bomb. Another hit for Golgari.

I believe Frank Lepore is absolutely correct in predicting the future of Type 2 is turn one Pilgrim followed by a turn two Smiter. A 4/4 for three is pretty awesome but paired with being uncouterable is just too much. Awesome card and with the presence of both Azorius and Selesnya we are going to be seeing some powerful Bant builds.

This card is so awesome. This card does absolutely everything control decks wants to do. This card allows you to sit through your opponents turn and during their end step either snipe their biggest step or draw two cards. I know either way is fine with me. This card is like a UR Swiss army knife. Definitely going to see play

Now this is the card that is going to make Bruna a viable option. This card and Angelic Destiny and maybe a couple others are going to make for some awesome UW Bruna Mill Control Combo type shenanigans. The fact that it makes your creatures gargantuan as well as netting you cards is what really excites me about this card. I like it.

This uncounterable cycle is absolutely magnificent. This set is Christmas for the control players out there. Wizards must have thought that O-Ring and Wrath of God weren’t powerful enough for those UW control decks out there and that they needed the same exact card except significantly more powerful. At the moment they feel a little unnecessary but it is cool to see these powerful spells have a more restrictive casting cost, especially since they might replace the originals for a season or two

So Regrowth is being reprinted. I will admit the casting cost is more restrictive than Regrowth but it is also a whole lot cheaper than Recollect. I am pretty sure this will see some competitive play. It is a shame it gets exiled cutting off potential interactions such as with Snapcaster. Either way, it is a powerful card that will be played.

This is the card I am the most excited about in the entire set. First let’s see if this new planeswalker passes the test: can it defend itself? The answer is, of course yes. Not only can she shut down any creature threatening her but it can seriously deal with any non-land permanent threatening her. Not only does her -3 effectively protect her but her +1 does too. That’s the beautiful thing about Vraska, she goes into your opponents turn with 6 loyalty and deathtouch. If your opponent doesn’t want to stare down her ultimate in only three turns he or she is going to have to lose a couple creatures slowing her down.

And her ultimate…

When I ultimate a planeswalker I want it to mean game over for my opponent. For example I was a little underwhelmed with Jace’s ultimate due to the fact that it didn’t necessarily mean you won. That is not the case with Vraska. After only three short turns your opponent is going to have to have three answers for your little tokens or else face death. I am so stoked to actually see the words “loses the game” on a planeswalker. I came into this set assuming I would be playing something blue but after seeing Vraska I was positive I would be playing Golgari. This card is awesome. Perhaps not strong enough to be a hit in legacy but I wouldn’t be surprised seeing it show up in a couple modern builds. Such an awesome card.

Also Pithing Needle is getting reprinted which is pretty neat.

Wizards has done a fantastic job distributing power amongst all of the guilds and all of the colors. While going through the spoiler I committed myself to playing any number of different color combos countless times because every color has so many great cards. I am excited for so many cards in this set it is unbelievable.

Be sure to check out Sphinxes, Demons, and Gorgons, Oh My! Part 2: Monocolored Cards and Artifacts here! And you can check out the rest of the spoiler here, at MTGSalvation.com!

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Should you buy: Magic the Gathering: Online?

July 19, 2012 By 1 Comment

Are you big into play the Trading card game Magic the Gathering? Is making that awesome deck too expensive? Do you find yourself wanting to play a round of magic but no one is around? If you said yes to any of these questions then you might want to look into purchasing Magic The Gathering: Online.

Marshal (PowerCords Editor) was able to talk me into buying this game for $10 bucks and trying it out. At first I didn’t really enjoy playing the game because I couldn’t come up with a good deck idea to start me off with, but Marshal was quick to tell me about being able to buy/trade for cards at a cheap price. When he told me that, I pretty much fell in love with this game. I then took the opportunity to find my favorite magic deck that I had made in real life and see how much it would be to buy all the cards for it. The deck in real life cost me at least $50 bucks, but as I was picking out the virtual cards the total came to $10 bucks.

I made the deck and put it together after a little while of getting use to the menus. I was then ready to test out the deck. Marshal was the only one that had the game and he wasn’t on at the time so I opted to use the “Games” tab. There were a ton of people on making new games and joining others. So it was easy to find a game and test out my deck. Unfortunately I don’t think I won my first game because I played a red white agro deck that was too quick for me. That didn’t stop me I just went and jumped into a new game. Also I’m not that into it but if you are there is an option for tournaments and drafts you can get involved with.

The one thing that I would change about this game is the menu system. I’m not sure what it is about it but I found it hard to navigate and get used to. It was also a bit confusing trying to construct a deck in the deck maker they have. Even with having played magic for a few years now I still found it difficult to construct a brand new deck on here, my opinion is to go to a site such as tappedout.net to build a deck and then go buy the cards and play the deck on Magic Online.

Being able to buy cards really cheap and being able to play whenever you feel like it is so great. Like I said if you are into playing Magic the Gathering trading card game then you should give this game a go. Feel free to add me, Schieds, even though I am not on much at the time being because I am still enjoying Diablo 3.

I will be working on a deck list article in the next week or so, so all of you will have the pleasure of seeing my creation, and if you want to try it out or give suggestions.

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MTG Deck Building: Solar Blaze

July 12, 2012 By 1 Comment

I am constantly on the lookout for that perfect synergy between cards that will lead to that next awesome deck. I have always been a mixture between Johnny and Spike so I am always looking for that perfect synergy that is cheap, fast, and efficient. With that being said I am also a college student who is on a relatively small budget. Because of this I have always been drawn to the Modern format. Standard only sees a small variety of deck archetypes and requires lots of spendy cards to be competitive and has a small card pool. The eternal formats both have that giant card pool and have some uncharted territory but again to have an adequate mana base in the format requires a couple hundred bucks alone. And then there is Modern. Modern is still a relatively new format and has a lot of uncharted territory and has yet to be truly defined. While the competitive decks do have spendy mana bases with shock and fetch lands you are able to put together an effective one with pain and bounce lands as well as with a couple of other hidden gems.

So as I have mentioned I am constantly making new deck prototypes on tappedout.com, constantly tweaking popular decks and designing new ones from the ground up. In all of my deck building experience I have been constantly drawn to one color threesome in particular: WBR. Before coming to love this wedge I really loved the color duos individually, and the cards that they brought to the table. Boros offered me Ajani Vengeant, Hide, Lightning Helix, Figure of Destiny, and Gisela. Orzhoz gave me Lingering Souls, Zealous Persecution, Seek, Castigate, Tidehollow Sculler, Angel of Despair, Unburial Rites, Debtors’ Knell, Divinity of Pride (one of my all time favorites), Unmake and Mortify. Rakdos provided me Blightning, Demigod of Revenge, Bit Blast, Falkenrath Aristocrat, Terminate, and Lavaclaw Reaches (I love my man lands). I spent a lot of time play testing each color duo seeing which was most efficient and effective and was not getting the results I had wanted from any of them.

BlightningDivinity of PrideHide (Hide/Seek)

I am a sucker for Reanimator. I first started Magic with a Coldsnap BU theme deck which gradually became more and more based around bringing back your dudes from your yard. Perhaps this bias towards the Legacy staple started with years spent playing Yu-Gi-Oh and the many popular reanimation spells that show up in every single deck. Now I realize how Goryo’s Vengeance and Emrakul make for a pretty powerful combo but I didn’t want a reanimator deck that relied solely on a combo to win. I wanted a deck that could potentially win without ever having to reanimate something but still had that option as a finisher. With that being said, BW seemed like the best place to start due to all of the great white reanimation targets and of course the full-of-value Unburial Rites and of course Lingering Souls. While BW was pretty awesome I pretty quickly realized I needed something else if I wanted my deck to hit that next level which was about the time I settled on throwing a bit of red into the mix.

Lingering SoulsUnburial Rites

So at this point I knew I was going to be rocking WBR and some sort of reanimation/graveyard theme. While I already had a suite of cool cards to use, I now had to search for powerful cards that provided some sort of synergy amongst the deck. With Unburial Rites and Lingering Souls in the deck it felt similar to Frites so I started there for inspiration. Unfortunately much of the synergy in Frites came from green cards, the last possible color I wanted to include. But despite color differences it is easy to understand what fuels Frites which are cheap spells which net you cards and dump several more into the yard such as Faithless Looting. Unfortunately the colors I was going with did not have access to Mulch and Tracker’s Instincts but then again I was building a Modern deck with quite a large card pool. After a little searching I found myself exactly what I had been looking for. Burning Inquiry and Goblin Loreare the two cards which best fit what I wanted. Being able to draw myself three or four cards for one or two mana is pretty good. Now the random discarding could be construed as a negative and at first it was but that amount of draw power for so cheap was too powerful for me to ignore.

Burning InquiryGoblin Lore

The key to using cards like these is to still be able to get some value out of cards put into your graveyard. Unburial Rites, Lingering Souls, and Faithless Looting are all once again perfect here because of flashback. Even if they do get randomly discarded you are still able to get some value out of them. In this sense your graveyard essentially becomes an extension of your hand. With Burning Inquiry you are essentially playing an Ancestral Recall because you are still able to play everything you discard on top of dumping your reanimation targets.

When it came to creatures to reanimate I had to make the biggest cuts. For the vast majority of the deck I was able use the exact cards I wanted but this one area –excluding lands– was where I had to make a few exceptions. As powerful as fatties like Empyrial Archangel and Inkwell Leviathan are, I really wanted to only use creatures that I would be able to hard-cast. Ideally I would be running four Griselbrand, Ionas, Elesh Norns, Titans and Wurmcoil Engines but unfortunately my budget didn’t extend that far. I wanted powerful reanimation targets where hard-casting was not out of the question. As awesome as Artisan of Kozilek and It That Betrays are it is simply unrealistic to plan on ever seeing come into play from your hand essentially making it a dead card unless it was in the yard. Ultimately I settled on Yosei’s in honor of another one of the decks main inspirations, Solar Flare. Yosei is powerful and cheap enough to cast regularly and your opponent can’t stand touching it without getting his or her field shut down. To round out my budget ensemble of finishers I included Britney Spears, Sheoldred and the powerhouse which is Akroma. The Angel of Wrath might not be as great as Sphinx of the Steel Wind but flying, vigilance, haste, first strike, and trample essentially gives your opponent an option: draw your Path to Exile or Day of Judgment or lose.

Yosei, the Morning StarAkroma, Angel of Wrath

When I had finished putting everything together I had found myself a faster and more aggressive form of Solar Flare. Due to the red splash instead of blue I decided to call my build Solar Blaze to represent my fiery take on the classic archetype. Solar Blaze provided me an incredibly aggressive deck with cards such as Lingering Souls and Bloodghasts that still had that powerful late game finisher. On top of all of this it still had powerful and consistent drawing power that let you dig through your deck efficiently and on top of the looting nature of these spells the deck is quickly able to recover from a Bojouka Bog or Relic of Progenitus.

Solar Blaze

Sorcery (18)

  • 4x Burning Inquiry
  • 2x Day of Judgment
  • 4x Faithless Looting
  • 4x Lingering Souls
  • 4x Unburial Rites

Creature (11)

  • 3x Akroma, Angel of Wrath
  • 1x Angel of Despair
  • 4x Bloodghast
  • 1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
  • 2x Yosei, the Morning Star

Instant (7)

  • 1x Hide
  • 1x Lightning Bolt
  • 2x Path to Exile
  • 3x Terminate

Land (24)

  • 2x Battlefield Forge
  • 1x Boros Garrison
  • 2x Caves of Koilos
  • 3x Evolving Wilds
  • 4x Lavaclaw Reaches
  • 1x Mountain
  • 3x Orzhov Basilica
  • 3x Plains
  • 2x Sulfurous Springs
  • 2x Swamp
  • 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Sideboard (15)

  • 1x Lightning Bolt
  • 2x Tormod’s Crypt
  • 1x Blazing Archon
  • 2x Duress
  • 4x Blightning
  • 2x Volcanic Fallout
  • 3x Hide

While I am still fine tuning the list I have been very pleased with how it plays so far. I have only played several dozen match ups so far but I am able to consistently win or at least get my opponent to scoop as early as turn four or five but more regularly the deck sees victory around turn six or seven. Before designing this I was playing around with several different Delver builds and I had found that this new build was winning a few turns earlier than my Delver lists while being significantly more powerful in the late game. For right around $20 I am pretty alright with that. I am currently working on a couple videos showing off the deck in action but until then feel free to add me, SpacemanMars, and send me an invite over on Magic: The Gathering Online. I am always down for a couple games!

I am currently working on a couple videos showing off the deck in action but until then feel free to add me, SpacemanMars, and send me an invite over on Magic: The Gathering Online. I am always down for a couple games!

So what do you guys think of the build? How does it compare to Frites or Solar Flare? Any tweaks you would be sure to include in your own version? Let me know in the comments below!

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M13: The Fun Core-set

June 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment

A handful of new spoilers have show up for the upcoming core-set, M13. Lately we have been seeing a lot of awesome reprints. Wizards finally reconfirmed that the classic M10 dual lands are showing up in M13 meaning we are going to going into Ravnica with a dual land for every color combination. Having a land for every color is also going to be pretty important when playing this bad boy.

Door to Nothingness, the classic Timmy artifact is making a return with some brand new art. While definitely a fun card I am not exactly sure on how much tournament play it will see. With the loss of Primeval Titan ramp decks have lost a lot of their power and finesse. I am not saying titanless ramp decks aren’t a possibility it just means they will be less effective. But then again based on all of the other ramp spells we have seen in M13 alone is enough to make a ramp into Door strategy plausible. Door to Nothingness is a fun card but we are looking at a Standard environment where there is a possibility that it will works wonders. Only time will tell.

Speaking of awesome artifacts…

God I love this card. This is a card like Door to Nothingness, meaning that they are both incredibly fun but unlike Door it is powerful enough to show up in the competitive scene. I have recently designed a Modern Reanimator Aggro deck running three Akroma, Angel of Wrath as a finisher and let me tell you she is one hell of a finsher. A 6/6 body is pretty good but paired with flying, trample, vigilance, haste, first strike, pro red and pro black is pretty close to perfect. Now imagine all of your tiny humans and tokens with flying, trample, vigilance, haste, first strike, pro red and pro black. Akroma’s Memorial is definitely not the right finisher for every deck but in aggro decks or faster creature based decks the Memorial is right at home. I have messed around with making an Edric Aggro EDH deck and I found that every time the Memorial resolves you win the game. It was a sure enough guarantee that I started running a Treasure Mage simply to another way to fetch it. While it is arguably no Elesh Norn it does do a handful of things that the Praetor cannot. Keep an eye out for this card. It might be just one more reason to keep that Ancient Grudge in the main board after rotation.

Sweet, Delver decks are still a big problem. While most commonly paired with an Aether Vial, Serra Avenger is definitely still a threat without one. I mean I don’t think I really need to try to sell anyone on the power of this card. Two mana for a vigilant 3/3 with wings? This really is perfect for those Delver Tempo lists. Turn one Delver, Turn two and three punch your opponent in the face, turn four play Serra Avenger with Mana Leak counterspell or answer mana up. Serra Avenger is entering a Lightning Boltless Type 2 environment which is the go to answer and the biggest threat to card. Without that classic burn spell to keep it in check, Delver with Avenger is going to reign.

While technically not a reprint, this next one really is a reprint.

Same casting cost, same power and toughness, same type and same exact ability? It’s the same card. Except for it’s not and now we are going to be playing against merfolk decks running eight Lords of Atlantis. I don’t really understand why this card is being printed. Have you ever looked at merfolk and thought, “gee, this tribe could sure use some more lords,”? No one has. We have seen with the Lord of Atlantis that this is a good card. Perhaps WOTC wants merfolk to replace the role that illusions played in the last core-set? It’s not unfeasible with cards like Talrand and Augur of Bolas that we are going to playing less creature oriented merfolk decks and more instant and sorcery ones. That would actually be really cool. Perhaps Wizards has re-made an old and stale card in the urge to push people towards a new take on the archetype? Well played, WOTC.

Omniscience 

 7uuu
Enchantment Mythic Rare
You may cast nonland cards from your hand without paying their mana costs.

Now this is a card I have wanted to see for quite some time. ‘Your spells are free” is just way too powerful for my inner Johnny to ignore. While this card might not be great in Standard it is just looking to be abused in Eternal formats and even Modern potentially. While the casting cost is pretty high it is really the ultimate enchantment and can be cheated out with Hypergenesis, Show and Tell, Academy Rectors and Lost Auramancers. This card feels like the new Hive Mind because you don’t win once it played but the second after you play your next spell. Imagine getting this out there and then casting Emrakul and a couple other things. Your opponent goes to counter something and you cast Force of Will for free without paying life or discarding another card. And then your next turn you play Progenitus. This is a card that is potentially powerful enough to squeeze in between Emrakul and Progenitus in Sneak and Show decks. Imagine how much fun it would running Teferi or Jin Gitaxias or really any powerful card with flash with this. At the end of your turn I am going to flash in Teferi and than I am going to flash in my Emrakul. I can’t wait to abuse this card.

I can’t help but think of Smaug when looking at this card

So you know how no one really cared about the green Miracles? That’s about to change. While at a quick glance it appears to be pretty cool piece of side board tech against aggro decks my inner Johnny sees a crazy one drop ready to be broken. So picture this hypothetical for me real fast. Turn one Slumbering Dragon. Turn two or three reveal Revenge of the Fallen and bash your opponent for nine in the air. It’s not just Miracles that do work for Slumbering Dragon either. The Innistrad block gave us several green spells with lots of counter distribution such as Increasing Savagery and Hunger of the Howlpack meaning that there are a handful of spells that rather effectively awaken your dragon. I am thinking about pairing this red green combo with a little blue for Delver and trying out a Standard take on the always fun RUG variant. Slumbering Dragon is definitely going to be a fun card with great flavor as well as one that is powerful enough to see some play. Also did I mention it’s a 3/3 flyer for one?!

Thundermaw Hellkite 

 3rr
Creature – Dragon Mythic Rare
Flying
Haste
When Thundermaw Hellkite enters the battlefield, it deals 1 damage to each creature with flying your opponents control. Tap those creatures.
5/5

This is another red dragon that is going to be pretty fantastic against anything spirits or tokens. So right off the bat I want to point out that he is a hasty flying 5/5 dragon for five. While the body is standard size for dragons haste is usually only seen on spendier dragons or more vanilla ones making this powerful dragon fast and cheap on top of effective. This is going to be a ridiculous finisher not only for RDW but also for RG Aggro and definitely even some Naya builds. Not only does it shut down your opponent’s field for a turn but it is going to be swinging in for five damage the turn it hits play. Not only that but it also opens the field up for all of your other attackers. While it might not do a whole lot after that first turn it is still going to be a flying 5/5 whom your opponent is not going to want to Vapor Snag. Definitely a sweet card and a powerful finisher which might even see some play in Modern.

Earlier this week a 0/1 goat token got spoiled and there was a lot of rumors of Springjack Pasture getting reprinted but it looks like we got something even more fun.

Trading Post 

 4
Artifact Rare
1, {T}, Discard a card: You gain 4 life.
1, {T}, Pay 1 life: Put a 0/1 white Goat creature token onto the battlefield.
1, {T}, Sacrifice a creature: Return target artifact card from your graveyard to your hand.
1, {T}, Sacrifice an artifact: Draw a card.
Illus. Adam Paquette #220/249

While definitely not a blaringly good card it is one that when used correctly could provide some good results for players. The only deck I can see really being able to abuse this card are Control decks that run a decent balance of artifacts and creatures to get maximum value out of this card. It will definitely be powerful in these few months before rotation while Wurmcoil Engine is still the go to finisher due to him being able to fill either role of the last two abilities. Imagine having this on the field and simply recycling your Wurmcoil tokens to re-buy the same Wurmcoil and cast it again and again. I know I keep saying this but this card is going to be really fun to play with but also could potentially an awesome toolbox.

The last card I wanted to mention is one which is alright but might imply something more exciting.

Hellion Crucible 
Land Rare
{T}: Add 1 to your mana pool.
1{R}, {T}: Put a pressure counter on Hellion Crucible.
1{R}, {T}, Remove two pressure counters from Hellion Crucible and sacrifice it: Put a 4/4 red Hellion creature token with haste onto the battlefield.
Illus. Trevor Claxton #226/249

Hellion Crucible is an alright card which might give RDW a little bit more steam. I am always a sucker for mechanical lands like these but thing about this card that I like the most is that it probably means we are going to see a mechanical land for the other colors as well.

M13 looks is doing a great job building a core-set with a lot of flavor, power, and fun. They are giving players cards that have been awesome in past as well as making new cards which are going to be just as fun. This is definitely the most excited I have been for a core-set ever.

So with only fifty or so more cards to reveal how are you guys feeling about M13? Do you love it or hate it? Do you think we are going to be seeing a mechanical land cycle? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!

 

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M13 Spoiler Review

June 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment

With the next core-set only a little over a month away now, spoilers are already jumping up all over the place. As I have mentioned already it has been confirmed that exalted is a major theme of the set and that we are also seeing the return of Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, both screaming Alara. This throwback to the tri-colored set means we might be seeing a few multicolored cards creeping into what is normally a mono-colored set. While it is true that the only multi-colored confirmed at the moment is Bolas we still have a lot more cards to get spoiled before the release date and it would be kind of cool seeing M13 setting the colorful tone prior to the heavily multicolored Ravnica block coming this fall.

So as of right now most of the cards spoiled are reprints but there are a couple of new ones worth mentioning. So it is pretty much assumed we are not going to be seeing the titans reprinted because they essentially shut out all other six drops from seeing play which leads to boring play in the sense that we don’t see any variety in finishers. With that being said we already have two new black six drops spoiled worth mentioning.

First off we have Xathrid Gorgon, one of the very first cards spoiled for the set. So let’s be honest, Xathrid Gorgon is no Grave Titan. She doesn’t do anything once hitting the board, is half as strong, and her activated ability costs three to not even kill something. Sure she will be a fun card to play with and she will be decent in limited but otherwise isn’t worth noting.

Second we have something a bit more exciting: Nefarox, Overlord of Grixis. Now this is a creature I can see winning you a game or two. While also not being as exciting or powerful as a Grave Titan he is significantly stronger than the Gorgon. So the first thing worth noting is that he has exalted. This is the first time we are seeing black paired with the powerful mechanic. To accompany the keyword is his very exaltedesque ability which causes your opponent to sacrifice a creature. In addition to all of his exalted shenanigans he is also a 5/5 flyer before attacking which isn’t too shabby. So while he isn’t the best finisher available, swinging in for 6 in the air while also killing one your opponents creatures is pretty powerful and with Go For the Throat rotating out here soon Nefarox could potentially mean game over for an opponent.

The other two new cards worth noting at the time are both red. One is cool and one is disappointing. Let’s start with the bad news first.

So Searing Spear isn’t a bad card, it is just worse than two cards most people were hoping for in the core-set. First off this must mean we aren’t getting Incinerate here. It doesn’t make sense for Wizards to print off two two mana burn spells for three damage each and have one be significantly better. Sure the non-regeneration aspect of Incinerate was never incredibly relevant but it made for a nice addition, and with the addition of Wolfir Avenger to the Standard card pool Incinerate was looking as awesome as ever. The other downside is that this pretty much confirms that we aren’t seeing Lightning Bolt reprinted. Sure it was pretty doubtful that it was going to happen but it never hurts to hope. We know it won’t be showing up by the same logic that we used to figure out there would be no Incinerate: it doesn’t make sense for Wizards to print two cards that do the same thing and have one be significantly better. Honestly Searing Spear isn’t a bad card it is just not as great as Incinerate or Lightning Bolt.

The more exciting red card out of the two new ones announced is Flames of the Firebrand.

So this card feels a lot like a situationally stronger Arc Trail. It will definitely be alright in constructed and it will be a beast in limited. I feel like this card wants to be an Instant but its not and because of that it is significantly worse. Second, it costs three mana. Arc Trail was good because you were looking at two mana for two dead creatures or one dead creature and a bit of damage done to an opponent. Unless you are playing white weenie or something with lots of 1/1s you are realistically looking at only one or two dead creatures. In Standard you are better off just playing Bonfire of the Damned because for its normal casting cost it is just as efficient of a board wipe and for its miracle cost it’s no contest. Also the fact that Bonfire has the potential to be something way bigger ultimately makes it the better choice.

So out of the cards announced for reprint most of them planeswalkers. As mentioned several times already Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker is making a return as well as Chandra, the Firbrand, Garruk, Primal Hunter, and Jace, Memory Adept but we still have no word on who the white or black planeswalker will be. I love Gideon Jura and he seems like the logical choice for the white slot (fingers crossed we see some new exciting version of him) but the black one could really be anything. There is always the possibility that Bolas could be filling that spot but I doubt it. R&D is fully aware that people love cycles and that if one is left uncompleted it creates dissonance so we should be seeing some mono black planeswalker. I am not quite sure who exactly though. Both Sorin and Liliana made an appearance in the last block so there is little to go off there. Maybe we are going to be seeing some new black planeswalker? While I am hoping for something new I think we are going to be seeing Sorin Markov get reprinted again due to the vampire flavor of the one black mythic revealed so far: Vampire Nocturnus.

Vampire Nocturnus

One of my all time favorite pieces of art on a card. Do I smell a potential list?

Most people saw this coming from a mile away. When this card wasn’t reprinted in either of the last two core-sets many people were disappointed but with the knowledge of horror themed Innistrad coming out soon it was generally assumed Nocturnus would be making some kind of return. So with the release of Innistrad we really only saw zombies taking the reins of successful horror tribal builds but with this vampire lord getting reprinted vamps might be making there come back from the Zendikar block. While Nocturnus contributes to the spicy pool of vampires we have in Standard the vampires just aren’t as epic as they used to be. If vamps make a comeback it most likely will be in BR builds so they could include Olivia Voldaren, Falkenrath Aristocrat, Stromkirk Captain and Stromkirk Noble and by including Red they are essentially weakening the effectiveness of Nocturnus. Sure it is only the Noble which doesn’t work for the Nocturnus but Stromkirk Noble is really your only source of early pressure. Zendikar vamps were great because you were really only looking at four four drops and four three drops and everything else being tiny and fast and aggressive. While we have a ton of great vampires in standard right now none of them are as aggressive and cheap as those old ones. So if we do see vampires reappear they will probably be a bit slower and a little less ridiculous.

So that’s about everything worth mentioning as of right now at least. So what do you guys want from M13? Who do you think will be the black and white planeswalkers? Are we going to be seeing more multicolored cards coming out? Is vampires going to become a much feared archetype once again? Let me know what you think in the comments below or email us at askpowercords@gmail.com!

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The Return of Exalted

May 25, 2012 By 3 Comments

So the July release of M13 is still a little over a month away and spoilers are still further down the road but we do know one thing: exalted is coming back. I absolutely loved all of Alara’s mechanics so i am stoked to hear it is coming back. Again not a whole lot is known about the core-set at this point still. We know the buy a box promo is a card called Cathedral of War and there is a picture of a gorgon floating around from a future set that might show up and there is a rumor we will see the reprint of Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker. Again out of all of this all we know for sure is that exalted is coming back.

So what are you guys hopes from the core-sets? Are you stoked for exalted or dreading it’s return? What do you think about the rumors flying around about Bolas and that gorgon? Are your finger’s crossed that we have seen the last of titans for some time? Let us know in the comments below or email us at powercords@gmail.com!

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Planechase 2012 Spoiler Review

May 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Planechase, the casual multiplayer mode for magic is finally seeing a much-needed expansion. The exciting news is that the expansion isn’t only seeing the release of new planes but also a small pool of brand new normal cards! While these cards will not be legal in Standard or Modern decks they do make up a part of the Vintage and Legacy card pool. At a quick glance at the cards spoiled so far though, none of them appear strong enough to find a place in either format but they all seem to be incredible additions to EDH/Commander due to the majority being exciting multicolored creatures, several being legendary.

As apparent in Thromok, we are seeing the rejuvenation of some older mechanics in Planechase 2012 such as cascade, ninjutsu and devour and clearly in new and exciting ways. I can see some pretty fun Thromok EDH decks showing up, something that spits out a crap tone of tiny dudes to provide fodder for this hellion. Devouring 5 creatures yields a 25/25, a creature big enough to kill any opponent in one blow or perhaps you eat a couple more and make a 47/47 which you than proceed to Fling in your opponents face for the win. While being an absolutely gargantuan commander that is sadly all he is once he has hit the field. I feel like this guy is missing some keyword because paying five mana and a bunch of your team for an undeniably big but nonetheless vanilla creature doesn’t seem worth it. You can swing away with this guy all you want and regardless of how gargantuan he is, if your opponent has a blocker he might as well be a 6/6. In addition to that, imagine paying absolutely everything for him to simply get Doom Bladed. That’s another problem, he dies to just about every kind of removal and this is not a guy you want killed with no problem. I feel like Wizards meant to give him trample but then just spaced on actually printing that part. With trample this guy would be an absolute beast but printed as is he is just a big ol’ vanilla creature who is not nearly good enough to make the cut.

Thromok isn’t the only new gentlemen with devour worth noting. Preyseizer Dragon serves as a situationally superior Inferno Titan. Sure it doesn’t shoot something upon entering the field and is unable to distribute the damage done but it trades that for flying and the potential be significantly bigger and deal significantly more damage. Sure if you were to eat only one creature it might be worth just running an Inferno Titan instead but when you are devouring two or three creatues this dragon gets mighty feisty. In the right deck Preyseizer Dragon could inevitably do some work.

Before moving completely away from red there is one more red card that I am perhaps the most excited about from the entire bunch: Maelstrom Wanderer.

Wow. This is my kind of general. While it is arguably a little spendy I feel like the pros definitely outweigh that con. RUG has always been one of my favorite tri-color combinations and this guy works absolutely perfectly with any faster paced RUG build. Right off the bat a 7/5 body isn’t too shabby and the fact that he gives every one of your creatures haste, including himself is pretty relevant especially in the often creature based/aggo decks that RUG tends to lean towards. And now on to my favorite part. Cascade, cascade. Cascade is an incredibly strong keyword ability and is perhaps my all-time favorite. So seeing a legendary creature with it is pretty fantastic, but here we see something twice as awesome. I read the fine print followed by the keyword explaining cascade and then just smiled at the last line: “then do it again“. While this card might be a little expensive every time you cast it, regardless of whether or not it is countered or immediately killed you are getting two other spells along with it. The eight mana you pay for it buys you three spells, not just one, and if he gets killed, within the next couple turns following you are probably going to be buying three more spells. And not just small spells, but just about every spell in your deck becomes something that is potentially going to get thrown onto the field for nothing. As long as you aren’t running too many counter spells this card is always going to yield ridiculous card advantage. This is also where his first ability really shines. You cast him and when you cascade into creatures they will be able to immediately head into the red-zone right next to the Wanderer. The more and more I think about this card the more and more I like him and want to make a new EDH deck with this guy up front. Hands down one of the most exciting cards for EDH in quite some time.

While it is kind of hard to follow Maelstrom Wanderer he isn’t the only incredible addition to the Commander format. Krond the Dawn-Clad is the first in a series of cards in the small block that revolves around auras and with Krond being a legendary creatures we are sure to be seeing some powerful GW aura builds showing up. This guy is just aching to hold a Shield of the Oversoul or something that gives him hexproof. While he might not have hexproof naturally like Uril or get bonus’ for each aura attached he sure as hell makes up for it with his attached ability. He trades hexproof for flying and vigilance and once he starts swinging there is going to be little your opponent can do to stop him. The GGGWWW casting cost might be a little tough but given the right suite of auras, Krond is unstoppable. Plus on top of it all he is an archon which is one of the coolest creature types ever.

Another creature that belongs right next to Krond is Elderwood Scion. Everyone knows Loxodon Warhammer is great and the same characteristics which make it great contribute to the awesomeness of this card. Heck a 4/4 with lifelink and trample for 5 aint to shabby but on top of that he works perfectly with the whole aura theme and the fact that targeting him cost more ultimately becomes a faux hexproof ability which provides him with enough evasion that he become a big problem quite quickly. My fingers are crossed that we see a Bant-aura type legendary creature either in this set or somewhere in the upcoming Ravnica block because these GW aura champs are just aching to work with Sovereigns of Lost Alara and Bruna, Light of Alabaster. These cards are going to lead to some awesome builds.

Vela the Night-Clad is at a first glance only a pretty card and not a lot more and her power as a general takes a little bit more time to really understand. Take note of her colors: blue and black. Dimir is a guild full of small creatures that when dealing unblocked damage yield incredible amounts of card advantage. While not very powerful by herself, she really shines when the field is full of Ophidians and Spectres drawing you new cards and eating away at your opponents hand. While maybe not as powerful as others she is definitely a fun card that’s just dying for some more Dimir. A card designed with Vela in mind is one I am excited about due to the fact that its the first demon ninja printed as well as bringing with it the return of ninjutsu.

This card is going to be ridiculously fun. The second he comes in for the sneak attack you get to steal something from your opponents hand similarly to Mind-Leech Mass. The Mass was an awesome and powerful card but he was a little spendy and didn’t affect the board upon entering the field. That’s where Silent-Blade Oni shines. Once he is ninjutsued into play there is little an opponent can do before you are stealing away things from his or her hand. If done correctly you could steal away there answer to the Oni and then just win the game from there.

All in all the cards revealed so far are definitely more on the casual side than competitive. All of the new creatures shown off so far are going to be great additions to EDH and the fact these great Commander cards are showing up in a Planechase expansion makes me happy to see wizards emphasizing the pairing of the two, which go fantastically well together. While I didn’t really mention it at all but some of the new planes revealed so far look like they are going to be a blast as well and they are also printing non-plane cards for your planar deck to mix things up a bit which looks pretty sweet too. With EDH being my all-time favorite MTG format I can definitely see myself picking up a deck or two once these hit the stores. My fingers are crossed we see some of these cards show up in the next block because they would be ridiculously fun to play in Type 2.

So what are some of your favorite cards revealed so far? Are you looking forward to this casual set or could you care less? Let us know in the comments below or email us at askpowercords@gmail.com. To check out the other cards spoiled so far head over to MTGsalvation!

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Return to Ravnica Speculations

May 16, 2012 By 10 Comments

While the dust might still be settling from the release events of Avacyn Restored as well as from the AVR Pro-Tour in Barcelona this past weekend but we can’t deny the exciting announcement of Return to Ravnica sitting on the horizon.

At this point in time little is known about RTR yet since it is still two sets away with the summer release of 2013 sitting between us and our return to the cityscape of Ravnica but we have plenty to speculate about at this point. First off we have been teased with an image of two of your favorite characters in the Magic universe who are going to be making an appearance in the block.

Jace Beleren and Niv-Mizzet

Jace and Niv-Mizzet, blue should be excited.

Lets start with talking about the Izzet dragon. So last time we saw him he was a legendary creature so I doubt we will see him return as such. There has never been a remade legend with different text that is more or less the same dude (we see remakes of characters after something has changed, ex. Glissa Sunseeker vs Glissa, the Traitor or Sygg, River Guide vs Sygg River Cutthroat)  and I strongly doubt we would be looking at a straight up reprint of Niv which leads us to one logical conclusion: planeswalker. There is a chance I am terribly wrong and we are just going to looking at some cool new legendary creature but I know I am not alone in hoping for a Niv planeswalker. While not being a planeswalker he has seemed to have vanished from the plane of Ravnica pointing to planeswalking as the only explanation. This wouldn’t be the first time we see a legendary creature make the jump to planeswalker. Look at Venser, Karn, or Nicol Bolas, the latter being a perfect example of why Niv-Mizzet might be becoming a planeswalker. The main argument against that is that he doesn’t have the ability to planeswalk but I feel that the arguments for him being a planeswalker are much stronger. Niv being incredibly intelligent perhaps discovered a way to artificially planeswalk and this discovery is the big crisis plaguing the set. Or perhaps this is where his relationship with Jace takes place. Maybe Jace has found a way to planeswalk with others, bring Niv with him.

So what exactly is Jace’s role on Ravnica? Is he here because of Niv-Mizzet or does he have some other motivation for being here? So if Jace is showing up it would be a safe assumption that he would show up as a planeswalker. If so this would be the fourth variant of Jace we would be getting which feels a little boring for R&D to be making so perhaps we will be looking at something like a duo planeswalker thing going on between Jace and Niv? One way or another I get the feeling R&D is going to doing something new and spicy for the return to the plane.

Since the release of the Ravnica block two major things have happened to Magic: the release of mythic rares and the release of planeswalkers.  Many people are hoping that with RTR we will be seeing a cycle of dual-colored planeswalkers, one for each guild but chances are this won’t happen regardless of how badly we all want it to. Wizards really wants to keep planeswalkers special and exciting and to do this they have to keep them rare. Since the release of planeswalkers, a given block sees about 5 or 6 planeswalkers. If they were to go ahead with the cycle we would be looking at a jump to 10 planeswalkers spread out over a block with 3 or 4 per set. Maybe this number is low enough to preserve the special-ness of planeswalkers but there is a good chance R&D will deem it too high. Than again there are always first times for everything and this might be the perfect environment to try it out and would an amazing way to show off the flavor of each guild. With the planeswalkers that have been shown off in Duels of the Planeswalkers one can only hope that we will be seeing not only their debut on real cards but accompanied by one for every guild. One way or another I am sure we are going to be looking at some pretty epic mythics representing each guild as well as some gnarly legendary creatures to accompany them.

Speaking of dual colored cycles, the Ravnica blocks most famous cycle was its dual colored lands. The Ravnica shock lands are perhaps some of the best lands ever printed so it leaves its return a large responsibility to uphold. I doubt we will be seeing a straight up reprint of the dual lands because powerful cards such as these don’t usually get reprinted and if they were, their only real effect would be on such a small scale. I feel like R&D will take this opportunity to come up with some kind of crazy new land but what exactly I am not sure. Mark Rosewater, MTG’s head designer has mentioned that we should look to the Innistrad’s cycle of enemy colored lands for insight into the next blocks mana-base but I don’t know what to make of that. That hint suggests we will be seeing the allied colored M10 lands being reprinted here which I feel is very unlikely due to them having become a core-set staple and being pretty boring for an opportunity to something so exciting. Additionally, Ravnica’s basic lands are widely regarded as some of coolest and best looking basic lands made to date. Wizards of the Coast is quite aware of this fact so fingers are crossed they do homage to the original beauties by perhaps going as far as making new full-art lands similarly to Zenidkar’s? I realize this is very doubtful but it can’t hurt to hope!

All of the basic lands depicted beautifully the city covered plane

So lastly, the block needs an instigator or a antagonist. With the return to the Mirrodin we saw things get mixed up a bit with the return of the Phyrexians and their invasion of the plane. With Return to Ravnica to keep things exciting we need something new going on on the plane. With Guildpact we were given the Nephilim as the bad guy wreaking havoc on the plane and would love to see them return to Ravnica as well. But I feel like they aren’t necessarily new enough to be the main threat. Something to consider which is admittedly highly unlikely is something Eldrazi related. This seems incredibly unlikely since it has been such a short time since we last saw them but there a couple things that suggest it is a possibility. The last time we saw Jace outside of a core-set was in the Zendikar block doing battle with the Eldrazi and now we see him again. On top of that I have always found several connections between the Eldrazi and Nephilim. Both are powerful creatures that are awoken and start destroying their respective plane. Their behavior as well as appearances’ seem somewhat reminiscent of the Eldrazi. On top of that both have special relationships with the color pie, the Eldrazi being completely void of it and the Nephilim being all over it. To be completely honest I really doubt we will be seeing them show up in the block but theres no harm in speculating.

So all in all Return to Ravnica is a set that I am really looking forward to. I absolutely loved the Ravnica block, gameplay and flavor-wise and cant wait to see what happens. Ravnica is all about color combinations and multi-colored cards and god knows I love me my multi-colored cards. You can be sure to expect some multicolored goodness coming up here as well as some game changing cards and some rule breaking on R&D’s behalf.

So what do you think is going to happen with RTR? Are we going to be seeing a new Jace? How about a cycle of planeswalkers? Will Niv be a planeswalker or will Ral Zarek fill the Izzet planeswalker slot? Maybe Jace will be part of the multicolored planeswalker cycle and if so what color combo would he be? What do you think the lands will look like? What do you think is going to be going on on the plane and is there going to be some new bad guy out there? Leave all of your thoughts and speculations in the comments below or let us know at askpowercords@gmail.com!

So this might be a little over-powered but imagine how awesome a planeswalker like this would be! Now imagine 9 more!

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Powercast Episode 6: Deaths ‘n Diablo

April 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Hello! Welcome to another episode of the Power Cords POWERCAST!

This week, the crew discusses Marshal’s Top 10 Movie Deaths, and few that just barely missed the list; have a lengthy discussion on the recent Diablo 3 beta; Marshal, Nick, and Kyle get into MTG, and we close out with our thoughts on the most recent episode of Game of Thrones.

Download below, and be sure to leave a comment or send us your questions at askpowercords@gmail.com!

See you next week.

Power Cords Powercast Episode 6: Deaths n’ Diablo

With: Brendan, Nick, Kyle, Marshal

Time: 2:08:59

Download (right click, save as)

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