spoiler – Power Cords

Sphinxes, Demons, and Gorgons, Oh My! Part 1: Monocolored Cards

September 18, 2012 By Marshal 1 Comment

So yesterday a couple dozen new cards were spoiled so of course I started a new spoiler review. When I awoke this morning I checked MTG Salvation for new spoilers and found myself staring at a list of 120 new cards. Due to the large amount of new cards announced I am going to split these articles into two batches of reviews.

Now, let’s talk about Return to Ravnica.

Now this is a card I can get behind. With the loss of the titans and Wurmcoil the Standard environment is running low on powerful six drops and I really think that all of the powerful seven drops lying around are going to fill this void. Enter Angel of Serenity. So I think the big thing about Angel of Serenity is that it isn’t just three Fiend Hunters in one card. First off once it leaves play the creatures aren’t returned to play but rather the player’s hand. Now while a triple Fiend Hunter is cool and all it really paints a big target right between this angel’s eyes and that is where this girl really shines. Angel of Serenity allows you to remove three cards from not only the battlefield but also graveyards. It enters the battlefield and you remove one of your opponent’s creature from the game and two creatures in your graveyard. Your opponent can kill your angel and get his creature back but at the same time he is going to be returning two creatures to your hand. This card is more or less a 5/6 flying body with any combination of Unsummons and Disentombs. Definitely a powerful card, especially with Restoration Angels and Cloudshifts floating around. Keep your eye out for this one.

At this point we have quite a bit of graveyard hate but Rest in Peace might be the best ones available in Standard. The fact that it cleans out all graveyards upon entry and then goes on to completely shut out everything else that would enter the yard is way too awesome. Definitely going to be a sideboard staple.

Precinct Captain

Creature – Human Soldier Rare First strike
Whenever Precinct Captain deals combat damage to a player, put a 1/1 white Soldier creature token onto the battlefield.Illus. Steve Prescott #17/2742/2

One thing is for certain: RTR definitely doesn’t mark the end of Humans. A 2/2 for two with first stike is pretty sweet but that last ability of the captain puts him over the top. If this human goes unchecked your opponent is going to quickly staring down a field of threats. Between the beaters like this guy and the white populate and detain cards coming out in the set, human decks or at least white weenie are getting quite a bit more fuel.

This card is awesome. Disperse was always sweet but it is also a rather limited card and isn’t spectacular late game. That is definitely not the case with Cyclonic Rift. Not only is it a Disperse but it also a potential finisher at the same time. It serves as great spot removal while simultaneously being a one sided board wipe in your favor all at instant speed. One effect is clearly more powerful than the other but the fact that it is both adds an amount of versatility to the card that almost guarantees that it will be seeing constructed play.

Dispel

This might not be the most exciting spoiler of all time but dispel is a very powerful card and is going to be a crucial cog in any control decks especially with the loss of Mana Leak in the format. My fingers are also crossed for some sexy new art.

If you thought that blue aggro decks were gone perhaps you should guess again. A flying 2/1 for one is pretty decent and the fact that it is blue is a little ridiculous. Sure the additional cost of bouncing a creature could be considered a negative but if you really think about it there really aren’t a ton of creatures in a UW Delver list I wouldn’t mind returning to my hand. The decks that get the most out of this guy are going to be returning Snapcaster Mages or Restoration Angels or in the worst case scenario a Delver which you will simply recast. 2/1s are usually decent cards but when it is paired with both flying and the most powerful color you know you it’s going to be worth paying attention to.

Sphinx of the Chimes

Creature – Sphinx Rare Flying
Discard two nonland cards with the same name: Draw four cards.Illus. Greg Staples #52/2745/6

Sphinx of Chimes could possibly be one of the go to win conditions for control decks. A 5/6 flyer for six is decent but that ability is just awesome. I could see this card ultimately missing but I can’t so easily overlook an ability that reads “draw four”. For control decks you spend most of the game controlling your opponent and shaping your hand. The decks that could benefit from using this Sphinx are the ones with large numbers of cards in hand and likely to have multiples. This card could definitely be a hit in standard but perhaps it will in Modern where it will really shine. By this I mean I really just want to see this dude in cahoots with Squad Hawk. Any who, this guy could be fantastic but at the same time I could see him flopping. I guess only time will tell.

I like this card quite a bit. This card feels a lot like Abyssal Persecutor and that card was incredibly powerful and saw quite a bit of play. Sure he doesn’t have trample but still a 6/6 flyer for four is the kind of power I want to be getting for four mana. Now your opponent does have the option to sacrifice a creature to tap him down which makes him a card you will probably side out against tokens but let’s look a little closer at that ability. So prior to declaring attackers your opponent can sacrifice a creature to take him out of the picture while at the same time making him a bigger threat. Now think about the scenario in which you would normally be attacking a 6/6 flyer. You attack and your opponent is either taking six or they are probably going to be chump blocking. His ability lets your opponent choose whether or not he is going to be chump blocking or taking damage prior to declaration of attackers which is significantly better than simply attacking and being chumped blocked. First off, if your opponent taps him he becomes bigger, something that is going to be incredibly relevant in a format dominated by finishers with five or six power. Second this all occurs before you actually attack. This means that you are going to be able to declare attackers with one less body on the other side of the field, fully aware that you are down one potential blocker ultimately letting you make a more informed move and play better. This is one of the cards I saw on the spoiler page and immediately knew I was going to be playing it. I cannot wait to start bashing with this demon.

As I just mentioned there aren’t a whole lot of creatures with six power floating around with the rotation of the Titans which is what makes this vampire worth paying attention to. Again, not only is it a bit bigger than the rest of the crowd it also has flying and one hell of an ability. If a 6/5 wasn’t good enough for you how about a 12/11? Attack with this vamp once and she is going to be able to pretty quickly go toe to toe with a Worldspine Wurm. Sure it doesn’t do anything immediately upon entering play but you can bet it is doing something the second you enter combat. Not only is it a notably strong body but it is going to turn all of your creatures –itself included—into absolute monsters. Necropolis Regent is definitely my favorite mono-colored mythic in the set.

Underworld Connections

Enchantment – Aura Rare Enchant Land
Enchanted Land has “ {T} , Pay 1 life: Draw a card”“If you need it, it’s available. The question is: how much are you willing to pay?”Illus. Yeong-Hau Han

This card is awesome mostly because it is so reminiscent of Phyrexian Arena. While being familiar it also different in several ways. First off the drawing is tied to a land. In some sense this is a negative in the sense that you are effectively losing one mana if you want to draw some cards. But with that being said it also allows for quite a few things. Being attached to a land also means you can do it at instant speed or in response to something, also allowing for potential Miracle triggers. Another big pro for this card is that you are in complete control for when you get to trade life for cards. Unlike Arena which will take that last life of yours regardless if you want it to or not, you can stop drawing cards whenever you like. If your life total is low this enchantment isn’t going to be grinding you that much closer to death. So again very reminiscent of the classic enchantment and like Phyrexian Arena you can bet it is going to be seeing constructed play. I know I want to abuse it.

When paired with a multicolored set this card might seem underpowered but there really are quite a few mono-colored creatures that are more than worth running a kill spell for. Depending on what archetypes become predominant after the release of the new set you can bet that people will be running atleast one these main board and maybe even a couple more in the side. Awesome kill spell that could trickle down to the other formats.

And those are just the mono-colored cards in this predominantly multicolored set. Be sure to check out Sphinxes, Demons, Gorgons, Oh My! Part 2: Multicolored Cards and Artifacts which comes out tomorrow! And you can check out the rest of the spoiler here, at MTGSalvation.com!

About these ads

Filed Under: Table top gaming Tagged With: angel of serenity, cyclonic rift, desecration demon, dispel, faerie imposter, magic, monocolored, mtg, necropolois regent, precinct captain, ravnica, rest in piece, return to ravnica, review, rtr, sphinx of the chimes, spoiler, the gathering, ultimate price, underworld connections

Ravnica Spoiler Review

September 4, 2012 By Marshal 1 Comment

HOLY CRAP. Return to Ravnica looks ridiculous.

While spoilers for the upcoming set have been slowly leaking out for the past month or so it wasn’t until a few days ago when the first of the month as well as PAX rolled around the corner when the first big batch of cards showed up. Among them are a quite a few brand new and awesome cards but perhaps some of the most exciting cards revealed so far are reprints.

That’s right. The Shocklands are back and with new fancy art. Only the first 5 are showing up in Return to Ravnica while the other five will be paired with their respective guild in Gatecrash. At first it seems a little ridiculous including these powerful lands in a Standard environment but without Fetchlands they are a little less ridiculous. With that being said though I would still absolutely love for Fetchlands to get reprinted in the next block. Fingers are crossed.

The Shocklands aren’t the only exciting new lands in the set either.

Return to Ravnica is debuting a brand new type of land called Gates. Gates are more or less your normal dual color tapped land except it has an additional type. Now while these lands are a little underwhelming compared to the Shocklands they are still incredibly important for several reason, most importantly, because it is a common. By making dual colored common lands Wizards has made it so that in limited building multi-colored decks will be significantly easier due to the all the lands you will be easily picking up in each pack. Now continuing off that, it will also allow players who are building on a budget to still really get the most out of the set and still exploit the colorfulness of the set without having to fork out tons for top tier lands. Lastly, these lands are going to absolute all-stars in Pauper. I have been hoping for some sort of dual colored land in the format (other than bounce lands) ever since first trying the format out and now I finally have some.

Out of the Gates and Shock-lands as well as all of the other lands available in Standard multicolored deck building should come with relative ease.

So the percentage of the cards spoiled so far that I am excited about is significantly higher than usual so I am just going to start at the top of the spoiler and just start going down it.

Jace, Architect of Thought

Planeswalker – Jace Mythic Rare +1 : Until your next turn, whenever a creature an opponent controls attacks, it gets -1/-0 until end of turn.
-2 : Reveal the top three cards of your library. An opponent separates them into two piles. Put one pile into your hand and the other on the bottom of your library in any order.
-8 : For each player, search that player’s library for a nonland card and exile it, then that player shuffles his or her library. You may cast those cards without paying their mana costs.Illus. Jaime Jones #44/2744

New Jace! As disappointed as I was seeing that the new Jace was in fact not multicolored, my excitement about every other facet of the card outweighed that disappointment. First off we have to look at whether it passes the planeswalker test of being able to defend itself and here Jace gets an A for effort. While he cannot directly deal with any threats on the board he is able to shrink the attacks of any offenders with his plus 1 making him an ideal threat against decks with lots of smaller creatures. Now Wizards apparently realized exactly how much they love giving Jace an ability that is more or less a powerful draw spell from an eternal format. The Mind Sculptor had Brainstorm and the Architect of Thought has a mini Fact or Fiction. A -2 ability that is getting you at the most two cards is pretty dang good. Worst case scenario for Jace is throwing him out there when he isn’t really going to do anything and simply drawing 4 out of him over the next two turns. For 4 mana that is pretty awesome. Now his ultimate is one of my favorites seen on a planeswalker in quite some time. Being able to search your opponents’ decks in addition to your own for any spell to throw in your opponents face is too fantastic. I really want to see this new Jace paired with an Emrakul and used as a way to cheat that monster into play. While the Architect of Thought definitely is no Mind Sculptor he definitely brings a lot to the table and even though he can’t defend himself as well as others he is still a 4 drop planeswalker starting at 4 loyalty. Keep your eye on this bad boy for sure.

The next card isn’t nearly as exciting as Jace but is definitely one that could be a blast to play with.

Pack Rats paired with other fantastic and fun rats such as Ink-Eyes, Swarmyard, and Relentless Rats could make some incredibly awesome casual decks. I don’t really think this could be anything competitive but it would be a blast to play with. Rats for days.

Mizzium Mortars is pretty damn rad. This card shows off Izzet’s new mechanic and it is pretty awesome. Mortars un-supersized is a decent kill spell for 2 but once it is Overloaded it has the potential to completely wipe an opponent’s board. The versatility behind Mizzium Mortars is probably going to be enough to see it appearing in some Standard RDW builds.

Hey check it out Overgrown Battlement is being reprinted except it isn’t as awesome. Sweet.

Axebane Guardian might not be as effective as Overgrown Battlement it looks like there might be a couple of other exciting green defenders getting released in the new set so there is definitely going to be the potential of a green defender ramp strategy.

Joining the Guardian is Gatecreeper Vine which is able to fetch you some of those fancy new dual lands. Last time we saw these kinds of cards making it into constructed players were ramping into 15/15s and Eldrazi and what not. What can we ramp into this time?

Well we might not have any Eldrazi this guy sure is a worthy target. I mean you cast this monster and unless your opponent has an O-Ring in hand you pretty much win the game. 15 power on board for 11 is good but even after death he leaves you with 15 on board and that 15 is always attached to a trampling body. So for that 11 mana you are essentially getting 30 power with trampling. That’s alright I guess.

I kind of skipped over white due to a lack of anything too impressive yet but at this point it is definitely worth mentioning Selesnya’s mechanic, Populate. Populate lets you put a copy of any token you have on the field. When the mechanic was first dropped I immediately saw 1/1 spirit tokens and tiny humans and the idea of getting just another little dude wasn’t all that appealing. But now we are seeing some big tokens. 5/5 tramplers and 8/8 vigilancers (it’s now a word) are definitely something I would be interested populating the field with. Populate is definitely going to be better than I originally predicted.

Now this card is definitely designed to fill the slot that Frost Titan had been holding onto for so long. Here is that control deck finisher that can single handedly shut down the field. Archon of the Triumvirate introduces us to the new Azorius mechanic, Detain and I am fan. While arguably less powerful than tapping down a permanent he is also able to shut down permanents with non-tapping activated abilities, *cough* guildmages and planeswalkers *cough*. This new Archon is able to shut down two at a time with double Detain and is attached to a flying body. This is a creature I can get excited about.

So we all know that charms are awesome. Instances with multiple abilities provide us with powerful and versatile spells. Sure some are less powerful than others but all are somewhat constructed worthy. Azorius Charm provides you with most importantly a removal spell that also can draw you a card or get you some life. If your field is set up well you could be looking at quite a bit of life gain for 2 mana. Not too shabby.

Carnival Hellsteed. Shows off the new Rakdos ability Unleash which is ok. It doesn’t blow us away but it could do some cool things. Regardless of whether or not you Unleash this bad boy you are still looking at a hasty first striking 5 or 6 power which is pretty good and pretty tough to deal with. Moving on.

Hey we got finally got the other half of Doubling Season after Innistrad’s Parallel Lives. Also it’s on a 4/4 body for 4 which is pretty neat. How neat is that?

Terminate is one of the best kill spells because for just two mana you can kill any creature. How do you top that? How about same mana cost except it also kills any planeswalker. While Dreadbore might not be at instant speed its versatility and power are going to make it an all-star in Modern, Standard and there is a very solid chance Legacy too. This card is probably not going to be less than 5 bucks at any point ever.

So a creature that makes all of your instances and sorceries cost one less is pretty damn good. That means that your Negates are one drops and your Searing Swords are Lightning Bolts. Now this ability on a 2/2 body for 2 is just too dang awesome to pass up. I love this card. Izzet is definitely shaping into one of the better guilds.

I doubt that Havoc Festival is going to be a hit in most competitive formats regardless of my love for it. With that being said I can see this card doing some work in an aggressive EDH or multiplayer build. Not a good card but a damn fun one.

Isperia shows off how much this set is apparently geared towards multiplayer. This sphinx is going to be so much fun to play with it. In multiplayer you are going to be more or less untouchable. In single player this card is going to more or less shut down aggro decks. Imagine having this dude on the field against Naya Aggro where you are looking at 2 or 3 attackers a turn or should I say 2 or 3 more cards per turn. This card feels like it is filling in the hole left by Consecrated Sphinx. Isperia is sweet.

Izzet Charm is awesome. It is definitely one of the more exciting cards in the set so far. It feels a lot like and functions very similarly to Fire//Ice. This one card is able to deal with small creatures, every other spell, and it can draw you cards in a pinch. Neither one of these cards is better than one another due to both being incredibly versatile and powerful but I will say that Izzet Charm is definitely at the same power level as the eternal staple. This card is going to do wonder’s in Standard, Modern, Legacy and perhaps even Vintage. It is an all around awesome card and just another reason to start worrying about UR Delver.

Lyev Skyknight is another example of the power of Detain. I can only imagine that this is going to help the outlook for UW Delver. This 3/1 flyer fits in way too well next to Delver and Restoration Angel. This card is powerful and works way too well in faster paced aggro/tempo decks. I like it a lot.

We were told Niv-Mizzet was going to be reprinted and we now we get to finally see the return of the brilliant dragon. So this new Mizzet is powerful and I love it but it really feels like Wizards took the original Niv and just kind of twisted things around just a little bit. The original read when you draw a card you deal damage and he had a draw ability but this new one reads when you damage someone you draw a card and he has a damage ability. Like I said it is an awesome card but it kind of feels like Wizards got lazy during the design process. With that being said this Niv is much more capable of machine gunning down an opponent’s army. Unfortunately though you won’t draw cards for it. While his ability might be more powerful than the original he honestly feels a little underwhelming in comparison. Cool card but probably won’t make the biggest splash.

Blaze + Mind Twist = Rakdos’s Return. Cool card and likely to lead to a BR control build floating around. I feel like this shouldn’t be a mythic but then again I have yet to see it in play. Perhaps it will Shock us. Please forgive the pun.

Selesnya Charm like all of the other ones so far is going to rock socks. This one gets rid of a big threat, gives you a threat or makes one of your other dudes a threat. Versatile and incredibly fitting for the color combo. Good chance it will be seeing constructed play.

So apparently WOTC felt that green and white needed some sort of trump card against Delver and blue in general. Wizards also felt it was necessary to put this devastating ability on a one drop creature. They also felt it was necessary to make this one hell of a one drop by making the one mana casting cost even more flexible and by making it a 2/1. Green and White now have a powerful ability on a powerful creature for a dirt cheap price. Thank god it isn’t a human.

Also Cursecatcher is getting reprinted and is even easier to cast now. Hybrid mana rocks.

Darksteel Ingot and Coalition Relic should scoot over because there is a new 3-drop-mana-producing-rock in the house. And not only does this bad boy act as ramp but it also fixes the entirety of your mana base. Chromatic Lantern is more or less a Manalith with a Prismatic Omen mashed on top. I love that card so this new artifact is definitely one of my new favorites spoiled so far.

Even though only the first 70 cards of the set have been revealed so far I am pretty much sold on buying a box or two. Or five. Return to Ravnica is shaping into one of the most flavorful, exciting and all around kick ass sets to date for formats from Standard to Legacy to EDH.

For all of your RTR news be sure to tune into Power Cords! For a look at the entire Return to Ravnica spoiler head over to MTGSalvation or simply click the link here!

Filed Under: Other, Table top gaming Tagged With: architect of thought, archon of the trumvirate, axebane guardian, azorius, carnival hellsteed, charm, crhomatic lantern, detain, dracogenius, dreadbore, dryad militant, gate, gatecrash, golgari, isperia, izzet, jace, judge's familiar, magic, mtg, niv-mizzet, overload, populate, rakdos, rat, ravnica, return, review, rtr, selesnya, shockland, spoiler, the gathering, unleash, worldspine wum

New M13 Planeswalkers

June 15, 2012 By Marshal 4 Comments

Another large handful of new spoilers has been released and they are all pretty dang exciting. I know I say this at the beginning of every spoiler review but the cards announced over the past couple days are particularly awesome and will all lead to defining the new archetypes that are bound to rise with the release of the core-set.

Now this is a mythic. This is a card I don’t need to explain the awesomeness behind it. Every creature based aggro deck running white will find a place for Sublime Archangel in their list. Mana dorks such as Avacyn’s Pilgrim and Birds of Paradise (at least until rotation this fall) now don’t only speed up your game plan but now they are all potential threats. Imagine having two dorks on the field and playing a Sublime Archangel turn three and swinging for three in the air with a BOP. Exalted is an incredibly powerful ability and a 4/3 flying body that gives all of your creatures exalted is absolutely amazing. Even worst case scenario when you play the Archangel without any other creatures on the field you are still going to be swinging in for five in the sky for only four mana, and that is worst case scenario. Realistically though this guy is going to be bashing your opponent for six or seven as early as turn four. Sublime Archangel is an all around fantastic card.

Speaking of four mana white creatures…

Here we see the continuation of the four drop legendary creature cycle. Perhaps not as powerful as Yeva or Talrand but he is definitely worth noting. He is a human which allows for synergy with all of the human builds out there and the fact that he is out of Incinerate Searing Spear range gives him a little bit of an edge. The problem is though that his ability is only active when you have three other guys on the field who you are also attacking with. Sure his ability is pretty great but the conditions in which it is active might not be worth it. If you are looking for that white four drop for your white something aggro deck I think you are probably just better off going with Sublime Archangel who is also safe from the legendary rule.

Krenko is red’s legendary creature in the cycle and he is pretty neat. Again not nearly as powerful as Yeva and Talrand but in the right build he could be pretty fun. I am not sure how much goblin support we are going to get from the rest of M13 but there are some pretty sweet goblins in SOM block and we are sure to see some awesome ones show up in RTR so I am confident this guy will be getting some action. With Goblin Chieftain still in Standard until RTR comes out I guarantee us seeing some goblin builds with this guy on the top of the curve and I think it is a pretty safe bet to say he might be showing up in a couple builds after Ravnica is released.

The art on this card is fantastic. Well done Izzy.

Now this is card I know Kyle is going to be excited about. Worldfire is a card that is very unlikely to see play in either Limited or Constructed outside of casual decks and of course EDH but damn is it going to be fun. As I have mentioned several times before, Kyle plays a Kaalia EDH deck and he loves his Obliterate and Decree of Annihilation. Whenever things start going poorly for him in the late game he drops the Obliterate and the game essentially starts over and enters into top-deck mode. It is always a pain in the butt once it happens but there is something that is also incredibly fun about it. Getting absolutely everything wiped more often than not leaves me smiling and laughing. Worldfire is the same way. It is going to be irritating when it is played but it is going to be a fun match. The only time this card is not going to simply be a fun irritating card is in Jhoira EDH decks. If suspending a Decree of Annihilation followed by a Kozilek was rough imagine suspending a Worldfire followed by honestly any creature whatsoever? Any 1/1 is terrifying once a Worldfire goes off so this new mythic is going to be absolutely ridiculous in Jhoira builds.

Speaking of Obliterate and other incredibly fun older cards brings me to a reprint I am quite excited about.

Rancor is arguably the best aura of all time. Auras are naturally weak cards due to the fact that they are tied to a permanent. Putting an aura on a creature makes that creature essentially worth two cards so if that creature were than to get Doom Bladed it is going to be a one for two trade in your opponents favor, a situation you want to avoid at all costs. Equipment is significantly better in this regard in the fact that it only gets dropped and stays on the field. Rancor overcomes this natural predisposition of auras being the worse card type due to the fact that it comes back to your hand. A one drop aura that gives your creatures +2/+0 and trample is pretty dang decent but one that also bounces back to your hand once it leaves play is amazing. So even if the enchanted creature bites the dust you don’t lose excessive value because the enchantment comes right back to your hand, ready to enchant a couple more. In addition to being the best value among auras the fact that it is great among dang near all creatures is awesome too. Some auras really are designed to be paired with a big or small creature but Rancor is great among all. It turns your little dudes into a threat your opponent needs to deal with and it turns your non-trampling finisher into a monster that your opponent either needs an answer to or loses the game. Rancor is great card in the way that it is powerful but not too over powered. I am incredibly psyched to see this card in a Type 2 environment once again.

Core-sets have kind of gotten into the habit of printing a big Timmy mythic when it comes to green. They print cards that are big and impressive but not too tournament worthy. While Elderscale Wurm might not be making into all Mono Green main boards you can bet some serious money he will be showing up in the sideboard. Elderscale Wurm is great because for seven mana he fits the requirements for a worthy seven drop. For a seven drop to be worth putting into a deck it needs to be stronger than the popular six drops (no one wants to pay seven mana for a creature that gets toppled by a six drop). This wurm is a 7/7, plenty enough strong enough to deal with a Titan and he has trample which is incredibly relevant. You can produce a 100/100 but if your opponent has creatures to chump block your beast it could be an infinity/infinity and it wouldn’t matter. Trample means that your opponent is going to be on a clock once he comes into play. But the 7/7 trampler is not the great thing about this card. His second ability more or less completely shuts down RDW. RDW relies on its burn spells as finishers and with the wurm on the field it completely negates that. Elderscale Wurm gurantee’s that you are safely out of burn range and it also is big enough that it is going to be tricky for your opponent to burn him out which is RDW’s primary means of removal. The wurm is also a card that is completely worth mentioning because once rotation comes around we are going to be losing most of the six drop creatures we have come to rely on for our finishers. Not only are we seeing the loss of the titans but also Wurmcoil Engine, leaving us with a little gap as far as six drops goes or atleast until RTR comes out. In no way would this gap be a bad thing though. It would be really cool to see players using the powerful four and five drops which are available as well as turning to some of the bad ass seven drops which haven’t seen any play due to titans. Anyway, Elderscale Wurm is great sideboard tech and will definitely be seeing atleast a bit of tournament play.

Thragtusk is pretty freaking sweet card. He kind of takes the place of Obstinate Baloth or Loxodon Hierarch as the life gaining beast of the format. The one negative to the card is that it costs one more than what we are accustomed to this creature archetype costing but it is significantly more powerful than the others. First off Thragtusk is a 5/3; a creature which can go toe to toe with dragons and angels. That five power makes him a card that gains you life and provides a big enough threat to your opponent that he or she is going to need to deal with it and even if they do they are left with something else to deal with it. This is what seals the deal on the awesomeness of the card. Once your opponent deals with it he or she is then facing another big beast staring them down. Thragtusk is amazing because it is a total of eight power for five mana in addition to five life all in one card. I know value when I see it and Thragtusk is full of it. Not only a great card for your side board against any and all faster paced decks but it is also powerful enough to find a place in most decks running green. Definitely keep your eye out for this bad boy.

I saved the most exciting cards for last and boy are they exciting. Most of the cards I have talked about so far are all pretty exciting for casual formats and Type 2 but nothing powerful enough to make it into Modern or the Eternal formats other than the following. Let’s start with the least exciting one first.

Liliana of the Veil is an incredibly strong planeswalker and arguably the best one since the Mind Sculptor. As powerful as Jace was, we were also given baby Jace who wasn’t nearly as powerful as the Mind Sculptor but served an incredibly important position of balancing him out by providing another answer to the ridiculous card. I feel Liliana of the Dark Realms fills a similar role in regards to Liliana of the Veil. While the new Lily is definitely less powerful than Innistrads version it is something that will still definitely be seeing some play in Type 2 and could potentially see some play in the Modern scene. Lily is a pretty powerful planeswalker in a couple of senses. First she provides you an answer to other Lilianas. Second she can kill most creatures opposing you once she hits the field. Now this is the one real downside to the card, she doesn’t pass the planeswalker test meaning it can’t protect itself the turn it hits the field. The reasons Jace and Lily are so powerful is that they hit the field and then are able to deal with any threat on the field and still be alive. This new Lily is able to deal with any threats on the field but dies in the effort.

Something worth noting about this new black planeswalker though is that both her ultimate and her +1 both just say Swamp, not just basic Swamp. This means that you can fetch shocklands and that your shocklands are going to be able to produce you a crap ton of mana once you ultimate her. That’s another problem with the card; her ultimate just isn’t up to par. Ultimating with the Mind Sculptor or Ajani Vengeant more or less means victory for you. It’s hard to come back from losing your deck or hand or lands but simply having an abundance of mana doesn’t necessarily mean defeat. Sure you will be able to play dang near anything in your deck but you are going to need other cards to win. None the less, Liliana of the Dark Realms is still a great card and will definitely be an all star in most UB control builds in both Type 2 and Modern, allowing you to build your mana base over time while also fighting off opposing threats. Her ultimate will really shine when you are running finishers such as Eldrazi or Blightsteel Colossus. Honestly I hope she is going to make Griselbrand a viable finisher in Type 2 outside of Frites and Solar Flare.

The next card is probably the least exciting out of these last three but it is probably going to see the most play in Eternal Formats and Modern.

M13 marks the return of exalted and it is back in new and exciting ways. We have seen it on new creatures and tied in with new abilities but Cathedral of War marks the most exciting addition to the mechanic by making its debut on a land. Teetering Peaks is a card that feels relatively comparable to the Cathedral and it sees quite a bit of play in all Red decks because it is a great card. Whenever a land is able to give you some sort of value in addition to being a land is absolutely great. Teetering peaks was great because you get that +2 boost regardless of how many people are attacking but it was unfortunately only for that turn. Cathedral is going to be a problem because it’s going to turn every creature you play into something a little more lethal and they will be until your opponent has an answer for it. It is a good thing the Titans are rotating out because fetching a couple of these bad boys with a Primeval Titan would be absolutely degenerate. These are going to be finding spots in almost every creature based deck from Maverick to Delver. Here is just one more reason to run Ghost Quarter in the main board.

So there has been quite a bit of speculation around who the white planeswalker was going to be and it has finally been announced and it is something brand spankin’ new.

While not the most powerful planeswalker ever printed (or most powerful Ajani printed for that matter) Ajani, Caller of the Pride is pretty dang fantastic. Three mana for a planeswalker is always an incredible deal so even out the cheapness of the card wizards has to always make sure it isn’t overly powerful. So right off the bat it is worth mentioning that this new Ajani doesn’t pass the planeswalker test; it can’t defend itself. The thing that is pretty cool about this new Ajani though is that even though he is unable to protect himself once he hits play, he does have a starting loyalty of four so realistically 5 loyalty once it comes to your opponents turn, making him tough enough to survive most assaults that will be coming at him turn three or four. While it doesn’t serve as a direct answer to your opponents threats it does do a few exciting things that are new for three drop planeswalkers. Baby Jace and Liliana of the Veil were both designed with a +1 that yielded an equal amount of card gain or advantage among all players, for example both players drawing or discarding a card. This was important for this class of planeswalkers because three mana for a permanent that also gains loyalty by yielding you card advantage would be absolutely and completely broken. Ajani breaks the trend of equal card gain in his +1 but substitutes it with an ability that is only effective when you have creatures on the field, making him more or less useless when he hits the field alone. Now his +1 ability is clearly best for beefing up your creatures but he is also great in a format where +1/+1 counters act as an important part of a mechanic. In addition to boosting your creatures, he can also effectively shut down undying creatures on your opponent’s side.

Another really awesome thing about this new Ajani is that he is great in both early and late game. Imagine finally sticking a Sun Titan (oh yeah, Sun Titan brings this guy back) turn eight but you are staring down a field of titans on your opponents side. And then your next turn starts and you drop an Ajani and give your Sun Titan flying and double strike. That might be a little tough for your opponent to come back from. Liliana of the Dark Realms was a little under powered due to her ultimate not being necessarily game ending but that is in no way the case for Ajani, Caller of the Pride. Say you are able to ultimate Ajani when you are still at twenty life. Your opponent is going to be staring down forty power on the board dispersed among twenty bodies. The only way they are going to survive the next turn is if they have a Day of Judgment or a Severe the Bloodline otherwise they are screwed. The fact that his ultimate produces 2/2s bodies instead of 1/1s is ridiculous. Being able to produce a lethal army late game when your life is at less than half is just so awesome. This new Ajani feels very similar to the original but significantly more powerful. Sure Ajani Goldmane can +1 with an empty field but Ajani, Caller of the Pride has a significantly more powerful ultimate and – ability and it is cheaper and starts with more loyalty.

So despite not passing the Planeswalker test he is definitely going to be seeing some play. He is going to fit in perfectly with any white aggro decks and unfortunately Humans. This new Ajani has found the perfect balance between power and cost and feels powerful but not in any way overpowered. He will most definitely be seeing play in Type 2 and it is very likely he will be showing up in Modern and possibly even Legacy.

So that is it for now. While we have been shown a majority of the exciting and most anticipated cards from the set we still have only seen one mythic out of blue so far and there is still one more mythic to be revealed in the other colors as well excluding green.

So what are your guys’ opinion on the set so far? What are your feelings on the new planeswalkers? Are they totally rad or just kind of stupid? What do you think of the legendary cycle? Are you going to miss the titans? Let me know in the comments below!

Also, found this picture and it made me laugh. Thought you guys might appreciate it.

Filed Under: Table top gaming Tagged With: ajani, caller of the pride, cathedral of war, elderscale wurm, krenko, liliana of the dark realms, m13, magic, master tactician, mob boss, mtg, odric, rancor, review, spoiler, sublime archangel, thragtusk, worldfire

M13 Spoilers: Drakes Galore

June 4, 2012 By Marshal Leave a Comment

Earlier today another large batch of M13 spoilers popped up. While the majority are common and uncommon reprints there are still a handful of exciting cards in the bunch. Two commons in particular that I am excited to see returning to the Standard card pool are Duress and Sign in Blood. While both are core-set staples, neither showed up in M12 and with black archetypes such as zombies and soon vampires both of these cards will be quite relevant and we will surely see them both on the tournament scene.

Speaking of vampires, in my last article I mentioned being unsure about the return of vampires but another vampire was recently announced for reprint, one that almost assuredly means that they are going to be a threat: Vampire Nighthawk. For those of you who were playing Type 2 when this bad boy was in rotation knows exactly how powerful he is. Heck I remember seeing several Mono-Black Legacy decks running a play set. This card is incredibly powerful by itself but when you have lords like Nocturnus and the Stromkirk Captain pumping him and giving him first strike he becomes almost unstoppable. I have recently made a UB Delver-Pike Modern build on MTGO running four Nighthawks as finishers and it works pretty dang well. Nighthawk holds a pike incredibly well because of his deathtouch, essentially completely shutting down all non- first striking or double striking threats. The fact that he nets you ridiculous amounts of life isn’t too shabby either. I definitely see this guys showing up in non-vamp builds such as any Mono-Black non-tribal build and most definitely in some UB Delver lists. I honestly thought this mini Wurmcoil with wings was too powerful to reprint but I am pretty stoked to see I was wrong.

The last black card I wanted to mention is one with an incredibly clever name.

Murder
Instant
Destroy target creature.

Murder, while costing a bit more than somebody wants to pay for creature removal lets you kill near anything on the board which might make up for the spendy casting cost. This might be too expensive for those black aggro decks which spend the majority of their mana each turn but it might be pretty powerful in UB Control or Solar Flare decks.

Green is also seeing some fun reprints such as Elvish Visionary, Farseek, as well as Acidic Slime who is back once again but on top of these classics are some zesty new ones. The one that has really caught my attention doesn’t actually have a title yet but MTG Salvation has dubbed Epic Ramp Spell.

[Epic Ramp Spell]
Sorcery
Search your library for X basic land cards, where X is the number of lands you control, and put them onto the battlefield tapped. Then shuffle your library.

With the strong likelihood of not seeing the titans reprinted green is going to need a strong ramp spell to replace Primeval Titan. While it might not be able to grab non-basic lands it grabs pretty much every last basic land you have. MTG Salvation says it will cost 6G which is incredible but the picture to me looks a bit more like 8G. The source that reported the card says the CMC is 7 so I am crossing my fingers it is because at seven this card is awesome but at 9 it would cost a little too much.

Red hasn’t had anything too exciting announced for it recently and white neither with the exception of the one mythic that has been revealed so far.

I am totally digging that new art

Serra Avatar, now this is a fun card. In all honesty it is simply a big creature but it is one with style and the fact that it is a throwback to Urza makes up for it. With all the life gain that is available in the format there could be some fun life gain builds that show up. Also with Fling available in Standard I would die a happy man if I got to see some fling this Johnny card in someone’s face for the win.

The one card I am the most excited about that has been spoiled so far is hands down Talrand, Sky Summoner.

Talrand, Sky Summoner
Legendary Creature – Merfolk Wizard
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, put a 2/2 blue Drake creature token with flying onto the battlefield.
	2/2

Wow. This card is one I can get 100% behind. If you thought Delver made for ridiculous blue aggro decks this guy just tops it off. Delver builds just got an incredible finisher. In Standard this card is going to be a beast, especially in the following few months when Phyrexian mana free spells and Ponders are still in rotation. If we see Ponder or Preordain or some other cantrip this will for sure be seeing competitive play. While he might not be powerful enough to make it into Eternal formats he very well might be in Modern with Lightning Bolts, Path to Exiles and other powerful one drops available. The place where Talrand is really going to shine though is in Commander. I can see the decks now; Mono blue builds with ridiculous amounts of cantrips, cheap bounce spells, and counters for days. Talrand is so amazing because he lets blue do everything it does best while rewarding you a flying army of 2/2s. He will transform your slow blue control builds into fast acting aggro builds without ever sacrificing the control aspects of the deck. Your counterspells are now accompanied by a flying army that rivals most aggro builds. On top of being the perfect blue General he is also both a wizard and a merfolk, arguably the most powerful tribes in the color. This means that you can run all of your favorite tribal shenanigans in your Talrand EDH deck or he will find a perfect place in your wizard or merfolk commander decks instead. This one of the cards I have been the most excited about in some time and I am incredibly excited to see what happens with him.

That pretty much wraps up the rest of the notable spoilers for now. Still no word from the black or white planeswalkers yet but the presence of Serra Avatar bodes poorly for Ajani since his ultimate essentially makes an Avatar once again supporting the reappearance of Gideon. For the whole spoiler check out MTGsalvation.com!

So what do you guys think about the core-set so far? What are some of your favorites? Do you guys love Talrand as much as I do? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below or email us at askpowercords @gmail.com! Also for any of you interested this is my budget UB Delver list here, and you all should definitely hit me up on Magic Online. My username is SpacemanMars

Filed Under: Other, Table top gaming Tagged With: ajani, delver, discussion, drake, duress, edh, elvish visionary, epic ramp spell, farseek, gideon, m13, magic, Magic the Gathering, marshal ellison, modern, mtg, mtgo, murder, Power Cords, pwr, pwrcords, pwrcords.com, review, Reviews, rotation, serra avatar, sign in blood, sky summoner, spoiler, standard, table top games, talrand, talrand sky summoner, titan, vampire nighthawk

M13 Spoiler Review

June 1, 2012 By Marshal 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.

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!

Filed Under: Other, Table top gaming Tagged With: alara, bonfire of the damned, BR, chandra, cords, core set, elspeth, exalted, falkenrath aristocrat, flames of the firebrand, garruk, gideon jura, incinerate, jace, lightning bolt, liliana, liliana vess, m11, m12, m13, magic, Magic the Gathering, marshal ellison, memory adept, mtg, mythic, nefarox, nicol bolas, of the veil, olivia voldaren, overlord of grixis, planewalkers, Power Cords, primal hunter, pwr, pwrcords, pwrcords.com, ravnica, review, searing spear, sorin, sorin markov, spoiler, standard, stromkirk Captain, stromkirk noble, table top games, the firebrand, vampire nocturnus, vampires, xathrid gorgon, zendikar

Planechase 2012 Spoiler Review

May 22, 2012 By Marshal 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!

Filed Under: Other, Table top gaming Tagged With: cascade, commander, devour, edh, elderwood scion, enchantments, krond the dawn-clad, maeslstrom wanderer, magic, Magic the Gathering, marshal ellison, mtg, ninjutsu, planechase, planechase 2012, preyseizer dragon, ravnica, review, rtr, silent-blade oni, spoiler, table top games, thromok the insatiable, vela the night-clad

Entire AVR Set posted!

April 22, 2012 By Marshal Leave a Comment

The entirety of Avacyn Restored has been officially released and boy does it look zesty. While I don’t have any reviews or analyses for you just yet regarding the newly announced cards, you can expect a round up of the set later this week in addition to some of the promising new archetypes that are bound to show up.

While I know I have been referring all of you to MTG Salvation for the spoilers, Magic the Gathering’s official site now shows off the entire set with the addition of all of the art as well. Check out the list here!

Filed Under: News, Other, Table top gaming Tagged With: avacyn restored, AVR, full, magic, marshal ellison, mtg, revealed, set, spoiler, table top games

AVR Spoilers Batch 2 or 6 or Something

April 22, 2012 By Marshal Leave a Comment

With Avacyn Restored pre-release events starting next week we are on the final stretch spoiler-wise. At this point we are only have about 40 out of the 244 left unspoiled so most of the exciting twists of the set have been revealed at this point but I am sure there are still a couple surprises still in store.

Let me start out with one of the more controversial cards announced so far.

I love that flavor text

So there are a couple of reasons contributing to the controversy surrounding this card. The first and most obvious reason is the fact that he is able to return from exile. The Magic R & D department has always done their best to stay away from return from exile type effects in the attempt to prevent exile from simply becoming graveyard number 2 but here they have broken their own rule. A lot of people don’t like that they are doing this including Mark Rosewater, Magic’s Head Designer. So ability aside, the second reason people aren’t completely behind this bad boy is because all in all he really is just 3/3 flyer for 4. The only real reason he is a mythic rare is his ability and the reason behind the controversy is that most people feel that this ability doesn’t constitute mythic rarity. They would be completely behind Misthollow Griffin getting printed as a normal rare but they feel he is way underpowered for a mythic. It is commonly believed that his gimmicky ability is what ultimately determined the cards rarity.

So what do you guys think? Does he deserve being a mythic? Is he a powerful enough?

Personally I love him. As I have mentioned I definitely consider myself a Johnny, and perhaps it is because of this that allows me to fully appreciate this card. While he may only be a 3/3 flyer his unique ability is incredibly powerful and gimmicks aside the ability is strong enough to for it to be mythic. First off a 3/3 flyer is pretty good, especially in a Lightning Boltless Standard environment. He also holds a sword incredibly well and fits perfectly into any UW Blade deck. The fact of the matter is if you are running Moorland Haunt this card is going to be constant and non-stop source of value for you. If he gets discarded, Doombladed, sacrificed, countered or whatever simply exile him with Moorland Haunt and he becomes playable again. He can’t be O-Ringed, Pathed, Dissipated Castigated, or Sword to Plowshared without him simply being replayed. Essentially every kind of removal gets converted into a bounce spell. While he clearly goes perfectly with Moorland Haunt this block has released several other cards that really allow you to get the most out of this card such as any of the Skaab cards or Descent into Madness (this griffin fits all too well into my esper build abusing DiM). In the right deck this card is constant value and will undoubtedly be a big player in Type 2 and will very likely ended up seeing play in Modern and perhaps even Legacy.

While I am on blue there have been quite a few new exciting cards that have been spoiled so far, particularly counters.

~Outwit
Instant
Counter target spell that targets a player.
#70/244

A one drop counter that hard counters something? Sold! While it might not find a place in every control mainboard it absolutely will in the sideboard. In the right match up this card is one of the best counterspells you could have, and that’s not just in Standard. I am positive this will card will leak down into Modern, Legacy and very likely even Vintage. RDW or any decks with discard spells get absolutely trounced by Outwit. While not nearly as exciting as Temporal Mastery this is definitely one of the better cards from the set.

Second Guess
Instant
Counter target spell if it was the second spell cast this turn.
#74/244

A hard counter for 1U? Sold! While not clearly as powerful at first glance as Outwit, if played correctly, this card definitely is if not more so. Right off the bat, this card allows you to safely cast any card you really want to stick as long as it’s the first card you play during your turn when playing against contol. No matter what your opponent casts in response you will be able to hard counter it. One of the dominating archetypes I foresee arising after the release of AVR is UR Control and that is exactly the kind of deck that will really be able to abuse Second guess. For example, your opponents turn starts and since you Gitaxian Probed them earlier you know what they are hoping to play this turn so during their upkeep or the beginning of their turn you burn them a Galvanic Blast or Gut Shot turning on Second Guess in preparation for whatever they were hoping to play. Ultimately it isn’t nearly as powerful as Mana Leak but in the right situation it does work wonders. With the rumors flying around that Mana Leak won’t be getting reprinted in M13 these new counter spells will probably be seeing a decent amount of play after rotation.

Moving on to a couple of the more exciting and interactive blue cards recently spoiled.

Lunar Mystic
Creature – Human Wizard
Whenever you cast an instant spell, you may pay . If you do, draw a card.
#65/244	2/2

This is another one of the bigger blue cards that will undoubtedly see play and is just aching to be played with some of the phyrexian mana one drops such as Gut Shot, Gitaxian Probe, and Surgical Extraction. This card provides another blue card draw engine for blue. While it won’t necessarily get played compared to others in the right build it will be great.

~Devastating Tide
Sorcery
Return all nonland permanents to their owners’ hands. Miracle

As I have mentioned before, all Miracle cards are blatantly powerful when played for their Miracle cost but to determine how powerful they truly are you really need to look at their normal casting cost. So blue being able to defend itself from all nonland permanents for 2 is clearly awesome and the fact that it is able to do so normally for 5 is pretty damned good too. Blue is normally kind of screwed ounce their opponent gets a field full of threats simply because prior to now it hasn’t had a lot of board wipes. In addition to being able to deal with multiple threats blue now has an effective way to deal with enchantments, artifacts and planeswalkers once they are on the field. Sure blue has always had bounce spells but this feels so much better and effective. Lastly, imagine how sweet it is going be casting this when your opponent has a field full of tokens.

Moving onto the other colors.

Riders of Gavony
Creature – Human Knight
Vigilance As Riders of Gavony enters the battlefield, choose a creature type. Human creatures you control have protection from creatures of the chosen type.
	3/3

Nothing too exciting has shown up in white recently other than this new human all-star. So incase you hadn’t noticed yet humans are a little ridiculous. So a 3/3 with vigilance for 4 is pretty good, but the fact that it is attached to a way of protecting all of your creatures makes him pretty impressive. He is definitely going to be awesome in human decks and will definitely fit into a the new Boros Humans build.

Speaking of red…

~Dual Cast
Enchantment – Aura
Enchant creature Enchanted creature has “, : Copy target instant or sorcery spell you control. You may choose new targets for the copy.”
Illus. Johannes Voss

Since the announcement of Bruna I have been keeping my eyes peeled for powerful Auras to play with her and so far this is one of the only ones that have really caught my attention. While its not a great pairing its hard to deny that this card isn’t sweet. I have always been a fan of Twincast type spells. While it is significantly slower than Twincast you are going to be able to utilize it several more times. This card is just aching to get slapped on an Invisble Stalker.

While not very many powerful Auras have been spoiled so far there are quite a few cool Enchantments.

~Wild Defiance
Enchantment
Whenever a creature you control becomes the target of an instant or sorcery spell, it gets +3/+3 until end of turn.
#203/244

This is another one of those awesome sideboard cards that in the right match up does work. While it could be sweet in green decks that run lots of instant pump spells I doubt that’s going to be where it really shines. This is going to be a sweet sideboard card in any green creature based deck (so all of them) because this card essentially makes all of your beaters immune to burn spells. Think about it this way; with Wild Defiance on the field the only way RDW is going to be able to deal with your Huntmaster is going to be with a Brimstone Volley with morbid turned on or they are going to have to waste a Shrine on it. Any creatures you have with more than 3 toughness are going to be damn near unkillable. This card is going to be incredible against RDW or really any decks that rely on burn spells to deal with creatures.

Garruk is winning

Another green three drop enchantment which is going to be pretty sweet is another one that works best in creature based decks. Triumph of Ferocity is an awesome way for green creature based decks to get some card drawing going on. I love how it provides green with blue styled effect but making it fit perfectly into the green side of the color pie. This card is actually part of a 2 card cycle with the other fitting not nearly as well color wise.

Before completely moving away from green it is worth noting that Borderland Ranger is getting reprinted!

Liliana is winning

While it is a tad harder to turn on than it’s green counterpart it could be an awesome addition to black aggro decks such as Zombies or the sure to become prominent Demon midrange/aggro. While I am not positive exactly how much of an impact it is going to make on the competitive scene I am sure it’s going to be a hoot to play with and when in the right build (sorry if I have said this a trillion times in this article already but its very true for a lot of them) it could do work.

Another black enchantment I am looking forward to abusing is Exquisite Blood.

Exquisite Blood
Enchantment
Whenever an opponent loses life, you gain that much life.
Even as humans regained the upper hand, some still willingly traded their lives for a chance at immortality.
Illus. Cynthia Sheppard#102/244

While it might be descent by itself that’s not really where its going to shine. I know I am not the only one who took a quick glance and immediately saw the infinite combo with Sanguine Bond. Get both of those 5 drop enchantments onto the board and all you need to do is either gain some life or deal some damage and you trigger an infinite life gain and infinite damage loop. It should lead to some fun Modern decks showing up!

So I had mentioned that the enemy colored utility lands cycle was getting completed in this set and the last land has officially been spoiled!

Alchemist’s Refuge

So I don’t want to brag or anything but I totally guessed that flash was probably going to be involved. I am kind of a big deal =]

All boasting aside Alchemist’s Refuge is one of the better lands from the entire cycle including the Innistrad cycle as well. UG and tapping to be able to play one spell at instant speed is awesome but the fact that you are able to cast as many as you would like is incredible. Not only is its ability totally awesome but it’s activation cost is also the cheapest it could be. I think this land is powerful enough that some decks will consider splashing one of the colors simply for the ability to utilize this land. In Type 2 I can foresee a RUG ramp deck showing up with I think would be sweet and we could possibly be looking at a UG aggro deck. Honestly the potential this card has in Standard is incredible and will lead to several awesome builds showing up. This card is going to be showing up outside of Standard as well in several decks, the first coming to mind is Affinity decks where the colorless mana produced from the land isn’t even a hindrance but I am sure its going to pop up elsewhere too.

Cavern of Souls
Land
As Cavern of Souls enters the battlefield, choose a creature type. : Add to your mana pool. : Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. Spend this mana only to cast creature spells of the chosen creature type. If this mana is spent on a spell, that spell can’t be countered.
Awesome land is awesome.
Illus. Cliff Childs #226/244

Another non-cycle land which is going to be powerful is Cavern of Souls. The first thing that comes to mind with this card are multi colored tribal decks, particularly humans. With this kind of mana fixing and the ability to shutdown control decks I think we are going to be looking at some sweet new tri-color human builds showing up particularly Bant Humans, Naya Humans, and even UWR Humans. While this card is clearly powerful in tribal decks it is also going to contribute to ramp decks rising in popularity and power again. Being able to cast your titans care free of counter spells is incredibly powerful as well as being able tofetch it with your Primeval Titans make this card a necessity in all ramp decks.

I am incredibly excited for Avacyn Restored. With Dark Ascension we didn’t see too many new deck archetypes show up but really just saw the development and enhancement of several of the current ones. This isn’t the case with AVR. This new set is going to lead to several new and exciting builds being designed as well as enhancing the current popular archetypes but in a way that spices them up and is going to really give them a new blast of flavor. This is probably going to be last spoiler review I write before the entire set gets spoiled (unless something incredibly exciting shows up) but you can expect an article from me about some of the most exciting cards from the set as well as my predictions on some of the new archetypes and popular deck builds that will end up getting played.

Until then, may you never have a Mircale card in your opening hand!

Filed Under: News, Other, Table top gaming Tagged With: alchemist's refuge, archetype, Avacyn, avacyn restored, black, blue, bruna, cavern of souls, counter, deck, devastating tide, exile, exquisite blood, green, land, legcay, light of alabaster, lunar mystic, magic, mark rosewater, marshal ellison, miracle, misthollow griffin, modern, mtg, outwit, ramp, red, review, riders of gavony, sanguine bond, second guess, spoiler, spoilers, standard, table top games, triumph of cruelty, triumph of ferocity, white, wild defiance

Avacyn Restored Spoilers Continue: The Powerpuff Girls

April 17, 2012 By Marshal 2 Comments

Quite a few exciting new cards have been spoiled since my last spoiler review so why not start out with one of the most discussed card from the set, Tibalt.

Apparently there was no Shakepspearean influence but if I remember correctly Tybalt was a little fiery, wasn't he?

That’s right. We are getting a two drop planeswalker. While its exciting that we have a ridiculously cheap planeswalker he doesn’t seem like a whole lot at first glance. Now before completely blowing him off keep in mind R & D was very careful with releasing a two drop planeswalker. They had to balance his cheapness with not overly powerful abilities while still making him playable. This new cheapest planeswalker feels a lot like baby Jace (previously the cheapest planeswalker) to me. Jace Beleren’s +2 was an incredibly useful ability that kept the net card gain 0 but his -1 really allowed you get some card advantage. He was a planeswalker you never intended to ultimate with and was never a super intimidating threat on the board but was still an incredibly powerful and useful card to have. Being able to draw a couple more cards and then giving your opponent one as well to up his loyalty made him an incredible engine. Tibalt feels a lot like that. His +1 while might not be ideal but it does allow for that necessary digging when you need it, doing so in way that isn’t over powered or intimidating to an opponent. Because of that it shouldn’t be to tough to get him to 4 and being able to fire off his -4 which isn’t a whole lot to scoff at. If you are able to get that off you there’s a good chance your opponent is going to be taking 4 or 5 which isn’t too shabby. All planeswalkers function as faux life gain, so I see Tibalt as a way for RDW to dig through your deck in hopes of finding that card you need who also then does one of three things: draw several attacks from you opponents creatures, lead to your opponent incinerating or blasting him giving up a card, or you killing him yourself with his -4. All of these for two mana is a pretty sweet deal if you ask me. I completely ignore his ultimate because by the time there are enough creatures in the opponents field worth stealing there is a good chance all of those creatures are going to stomping all over Tibalt. Tibalt is definitely going to be a player in the Standard environment and will definitely will be making his way into a good amount of RDW lists. While he might not make too much of impact outside of Type 2 there is paradigm of Magic we all should remember: planeswalkers are awesome. Not only is Tibalt a planeswalker but he is a planeswalker that cost 2. He might not seem like much now but I am sure he is going to do some work once he hits the field.
Lets move onto the next red Mythic that has been spoiled so far.

Bonfire of the Damned. More like Giant Wave of Lava Death. So most other Miracle cards have been consider kind of iffy because of their steep normal casting cost but Bonfire feels pretty damn (no pun intended) playable either way. I don’t think I need to sell anyone on why its awesome to top deck this bad boy and only have to pay its miracle cost, but honestly paying 2R to kill all of your opponents one drops while preserving yours as well as singeing your opponents face is pretty freaking sweet. Hell paying two more to deal two to everything is pretty sweet too! This is a good card. I foresee a lot of decks running a split of Slagstorms and Bonfires for the versatility. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this bad boy creeping down to Modern and possibly even down to the right Legacy deck. Sweet Miracle Card.

One last red card I wanted to mention was Zealous conscripts. Play my creature, remove your threat by stealing it, bash you for 3+X. This card is going to ridiculous in limited and could very very likely see some Standard play. Act of Treason effects are always good but when its attached to a 3/3 hasty body it’s just a bit more awesome.

Zealous Conscripts

Before completely moving away from red let me tell you a little anecdote. Innistrad debuts showing off new allied colored utility lands and they are awesome. Dark Ascension is released and with it come two enemy colored utility lands and they are awesome. Avacyn Restored spoilers come rolling around and with it comes the confirmation of the rest of the cycle and it looks awesome.

Desolate Lighthouse

Slayers’ Stronghold

First off is the UR Desolate Lighthouse which lets you loot (who saw that coming?) for three. The other is the WR Slayer’s Stronghold which I find a bit more exciting. So for WR and tapping it one of your creatures gets +2/0, haste and vigilance? Not too shabby. I think this could lead to a lot more Rally the Peasants/ Boros decks coming into the limelight. While the Lighthouse will definitely be a solid addition to some decks I don’t think its going to make nearly as big of an impact as the Stronghold will. So that leaves us with only the UG land left which has yet to be spoiled. What do you guys think it will be? My guess is it will give one of your guys hexproof until the end of turn or maybe something with flash (two mechanics that both blue and green share). I am hoping for something a bit more exciting than that but then again hexproof is pretty damn sweet. I guess we will see! Leave your guesses in the comments below!

Moving on.

Green is a color that I haven’t talked about too much yet and it’s because outside of Sigarda it hasn’t gotten anything particularly exciting yet. Until now.

Champion of Lambholt

So Champion of the Parish’s big brother just walked into the room. So now not only do all creatures trigger his ability but he also prevents your creatures from getting blocked? Mono green decks just got the all-star they have been looking for. With cheap undying creatures like Young Wolf and Strangleroot Gesit who are going to retrigger his ability multiple times Mono Green aggro and RG aggro just got that much better.

Besides Champion of the Lambholt green still doesn’t have a whole lot of excitement. They have spoiled one of the green mythic so far which is surprisingly (there really needs to be a sarcasm font) a big ol’ green creatures who is expensive but in the right situation could be decent. Despite this there are still some 180 more cards to be spoiled so I am sure there are some exciting green cards in there somewhere. There is definitely at least one more green mythic coming out and there is a pretty good chance we are going to be looking at another feisty Miracle. Speaking of Miracle…

The second white Mythic has been spoiled and it is pretty sweet if I do say so myself. This card is pretty similar to Bonfire of the Damned in the sense that the Miracle cost is clearly powerful but it still isn’t that bad casting it normally. While it’s not nearly as playable as Bonfire when it comes to casting it normally a flying 4/4 for 2WWW isn’t terrible. Neither is 2 4/4s for 4WWW. This is a good card and it could definitely be squeezing itself into Mono White decks because being able to flood the field with 4/4 angels could be pretty game changing. Probably wont see too much play but I am foreseeing it will get some.

Angel of Glory’s Rise

With Dark Ascension we saw Zombie Apocalypse; a fun card that didn’t really see any play due to the fact that Gravecrawlers got out of the graveyard easily enough on their own and six mana was just a bit too much for those aggro zombie builds. Now we are seeing the inverse of that but attached to a flying 4/6. While most Human decks probably won’t end up running her due to the spendy cost Angel of Glory’s Rise could really be that late game fuel they need. Needless to say she would do wok bringing all your humans back but imagine how amazing it would feel casting her when playing against zombies. Just saying.
If you are feeling like Angel of Glory’s Rise is too expensive and specific of a finisher might I suggest Cathar’s Crusade?

Cathars’ Crusade

With cards like this and Champion of the Lambholt I am definitely starting to appreciate the power of flickering in this set. Everytime I play a creature my creatures get bigger? That sounds like every agro player’s dream. This card is definitely going to be a finisher in any white agro deck. This bad boy finds his place in Haunted Humans, Green White Aggro (which is going to be awesome with the release of AVR), and even in Rally the Peasant/ Boros decks.

Lastly we now have another reanimation spell in Standard. It’s another 5 drop except this time its white and it really wants you to reanimate angels. If it wasn’t clear enough that these big angels were meant to be reanimated now it better be.

Defy Death

Before I completely move away from white I have something to admit. I have the tendency to sometimes start reading or skimming over a card and then get excited and assume I know exactly what it does and stop reading it (Kyle has a quite a few stories about me doing this unfortunately). This is exactly what happened with me and Soulbond. I didn’t notice until these past few days that you can pair your creatures not only when the Soulbond guy enters but also again when any of your other guys enter as well. Please forgive me for not expressing more excitement for this mechanic until now. Soulbond is awesome and so far most of the Soulbond guys are going to be ridiculous. Silverblade Paladin is the new Mirran Crusader except you are trading off the pro green and black to give your 4/4 Champion of the Parish double strike instead. I would call that a fair trade. I already mentioned thinking Tandem Lookout having potential but after realizing exactly how Soulbond works it really is apparent how much of a machine it is going to be. Hell even the green common Nightshade Peddler will be great, functioning as the perfect defense for preventing your opponents from attacking by being able to throw your small and now deathtouch guys in front of any threat. Soulbond is awesome.

So I have been saving black for last because the have recently announced a card I am the most excited about so far in the entire set. But lets start with a few of the other goodies black has in store in Avacyn Restored.

Appetite for Brains

Inquisition of Kozilek’s big brother just showed up! While a new one-black-mana-discard-card-from-opponent’s-hand is great and all its just not great as IoK is or even Duress. Sure it will be nice being able to pick off your opponents big threats from your opponent’s hand before he or she can even play them but it is more often than not those cheaper cards you really want to kill. You want to be able to snag that Mana-Leak to allow your threat to safely enter or you want to make them drop their Lightning Bolt so your Knight can safely come into play. There are quite of few tempo and faster paced decks that don’t run any four drops at all making it a dead card in a lot of match ups. It might make its way into side decks for Wolf-Run match ups but there are so much more powerful cards you could have instead. I doubt it will see any play at all outside of Standard if it sees play there. That being said the name, the art, and the flavor text all contribute to probably my favorite flavored card in quite some time. it’s a shame it’s not better.

Now this is a black one drop I can get excited about. I don’t know about you but I love my one mana kill spells. I was pretty damned stoked about Tragic Slip but have often been irritated by the extra work you have to put in to get the most out of it. But now we have Human Frailty. While at a quick glance it might seem pretty limited I suggest you think about it for a minute. This card can obvious effectively hit any threat from a Humans deck (excluding Mirran Crusader) in addition to some of the most powerful and most played creatures played in more than just Standard. Human Frailty can kill Delver, Dark Confidant, Knight if the Reliquary, Student of Warfare, Gaddock Teeg, Thalia, Noble Hierarch, and more. Even if you can’t justify fitting in the main board you bet you are going to be putting four in the sideboard because against the right deck it can be devastating.

So there is one last card on my list I wanted to talk about today. It is a card that has been getting an incredible amount of hate because in all honesty its going to suck playing against it and most situations it’s even going to suck being the one playing it.

Descent into Madness

Descent into Madness, now that’s my kinda card. Ever since I have started playing Magic, Pox and Smallpox have been some of favorite card of all time. The sheer power of them has always over shadowed the consequences of playing them. The same can be said about Descent into Madness for me. Right off the bat it looks like it is an unfun and ultimately unplayable card. Its one of those cards that can turn a fun game into something hellish pretty quickly if it goes unchecked. Being a Johnny and this card being an über Johnny card it really is just screaming for me to find some way to abuse it and god knows I want to! But where does it fit? The spendy mana cost makes it feel controlly but most control decks don’t have a lot of presence on the field until late game so they would have to start shaving off their lands which they need for their finishers. I guess if they ran a whole lot of means of drawing they could give up a lot of their hand but I don’t think this black hole of card is the best fit for UB control. It belongs in a deck surrounded by cards that give you value. As of right now I am toying with some kind BW Smallpox and token build, full of cards that net you permanents. Running things like Tezzeret’s Gambit to speed up the black hole and Hex Parasites to slow things down if necessary. Ultimately it’s a ridiculous card that has been getting a ton of hate and will probably not see too much play. But give it some time and some Johnny out there is going to find some kind of combo with this amazing enchantment and make one hell of a deck. My fingers are crossed it happens soon. I am very excited about this card.
Tune into Power Cords for future reviews of the upcoming spoilers. Leave your thoughts about the set so far and please let me know if you can think of a way to Abuse DiM! Check out the full spoiler list at MTG Salvation!

Ooh! I almost forgot. The Title of this post is Powerpuff Girls because if you haven’t noticed there a few similarities…

Check out my reviews of some the earlier cards spoiled too!

First AVR Planeswalker Revealed: Tamiyo

Griselbrand Restored

Filed Under: News, Other, Table top gaming Tagged With: angel, angel of glory's rise, appetite for brains, Avacyn, avacyn restored, AVR, black, blue, bonfire of the damned, cathar's crusade, champion of lambholt, champion of the parish, color pie, combo, cycle, defy death, demon, descent into madness, desolate lighthouse, despair, doctor, drop, entreat the angels, green, hexproof, human, human frailty, land, legacy, magic, marshal ellison, miracle, mirran crusader, modern, mtg, mythic, nightshade peddler, Power Cords, powerpuf girls, powerpuff, pox, red, review, silverblade paladin, slayer's stronghold, smallpox, soulbond, spoiler, spoilers, standard, table top games, tandem lookout, the fiend-blooded, Tibalt, tybalt, white, zealous conscript, zombie

First AVR Planeswalker Revealed: Tamiyo

April 11, 2012 By Marshal 5 Comments

The first of two Avacyn Restored planeswalkers was revealed today and it really shows off the similarities between the Innistrad block and the Kamigawa block with the fact that the planeswalker is indeed a moonfolk.

As many of noticed the last mono-blue planeswalker outside of a core set was Jace, the Mind Sculptor and while not nearly as game changing, Tamiyo, the Moon Sage is sure to do some work. Right off the bat it should be noted that Tamiyo is able to protect herself once hitting the field, passing the planeswalker test and the fact that it’s her +1 is pretty sweet too. While she might be a five drop which isn’t nearly as fantastic as a 4 or 3 drop she does enter the battlefield with 4 loyalty keeping her safe from Incinerates and un-metal crafted Galvanic Blasts. While not as fast as Jace she does do several really important things very well. Being able to lock down the board with her +1 is awesome and depending on the board you can draw a handful of cards. While her +1 might not be great against aggro or faster creature based decks you can just throw her down, draw 3 or 4 cards and still have her on the field which for five mana is a pretty sweet deal. While her first 2 abilities are powerful her ultimate is pretty amazing as well. Tamiyo is the perfect planeswalker for a control deck and her ultimate reflects that. Imagine it being late game and just getting her ultimate off and being able to counter everything your opponent throws out there with one Dissipate or killing every creature they have with one Go for the Throat. Everyone of your cards gets so much value. Blue is an incredibly powerful color and Tamiyo is the perfect representation of the color. She is going to be an all-star in most control decks and could even show up as a finisher in decks simply running blue. I doubt she will show up to much outside of Standard though, perhaps occasionally in Modern. All in all she is a great card and I am looking forward to seeing her in action.

Moving onto to other notable blue cards that have been revealed leads me to Arcane Melee. While this probably won’t see too much play due to the simple fact that paying the 5 mana probably isn’t worth the benefit but I am sure that there could be some sweet combos and plays revolving around this at one point or another. Keep an eye on this bad boy.

Tandem Lookout is another blue card which could end up being pretty powerful. This is the first Soulbond creature that has really caught my eye. I could see him ending up in blue aggro decks paired with Delvers, Invisible Stalkers or other flyers serving as that card advantage engine blue aggro decks are always looking for.

The last blue card I want to talk about is actually part of a cycle of multicolored angels including the previously announced Sigarda. The angel I am referring to is the aura oriented Bruna, Light of Alabaster. While Bruna is indeed powerful she feels very comparable to Sovereigns of Lost of Alara but slower and in a Standard environment lacking super powerful auras to abuse. In Type 2 right now at least the only auras worth utilizing are Angelic Destiny and perhaps Call to Kindred (If you are going with an angel tribal theme kind of deal). While she might definitely become more powerful as the rest of the set is revealed or with the release of M13 and the next Ravnica oriented block which is bound to have some enchantments but for right now she is kind of lack luster. She might show up in a couple Modern Bant decks as a back up if there Sovereigns fails but I really doubt she will see too much play at the moment at least outside of EDH where she could make for a pretty freaking sweet general.

Gisela, Blade of Goldnight is the last angel in this multicolored angel cycle, unless they of course have a BW one up their sleeve (I assume not because one of themes of this set is everybody versus black so having more BW cards doesn’t make a ton of sense flavor wise). Gisela is probably my favorite out of three so far simply because she is awesome. While she doesn’t have that untouchable style that Sigarda has she definitely is going to be trickier to kill than Bruna. One of the major downsides of Bruna or even Avacyn is that they don’t do anything once hitting the board and this is where Gisela really shines. Playing those other angels probably won’t let you win the turn they come into play but with Gisela coming into play she could really give you that edge you need. She might see some play in Solar Flare but she is definitely going to be showing up in Frites and perhaps even in ramp decks. Imagine playing one of those latter two decks and having an Inferno Titan in play and then reanimating a Gisela. Your Titan attacks right off the bat hitting your opponent for 6 or wiping out all of their tokens or simply killing an opposing titan and then having the actual titan hit your opponent for 12 before pumps. Not only does she make killing your opponent that much easier but it makes killing you and your team that much harder as well. While she not have the protection Sigarda has, she will most definitely be worth it. She will definitely be seeing play in Standard and possibly in Modern (probably not too much). And of course like all of the other legendary creatures revealed so far she is going to rock in Commander.

Now if you are looking for a card that is hands down going to be showing up in Legacy and Modern as well as Standard look no further because Vexing Devil is your man. Holy shit this card rocks. So worst case scenario you pay the 1 mana for him and your opponent pays the 4 life to kill him. So worst case scenario you are hitting your opponent for 4 life for one mana on turn one. Best case scenario you have a 4/3 turn one. Either way works for me! This is a card that is going to be a 4 of in all top-tier RDWs in all formats for some time to come. He feels like a Keldon Marauders on super soldier serum. While he is obviously going to be a mono red all-star he is definitely powerful enough to make it into UR Delver lists, RG Aggro decks and could very well show up in the Wolf Run decks. Probably Boros too. Really any fast deck using red. In all honesty this card would be ridiculously powerful for 2 mana but instead he is 1. Definitely going to be one of the most powerful cards in the set.

Translation:
Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, reveal the top card of your library. If it's a creature card that shares a creature type with a creature you control, you can cast this card without paying its mana cost. Otherwise, put it at the bottom of your library.

This is another card I am excited about and definitely see it being abused in Modern. Descendants’ Path is a great card just waiting to be abused in some tribal deck and with all of the angels showing up in this set. I think we might all know what are creature type is most likely to be abused here is. They have already announced one (arguably two) 3 drop angels and if any more show up expect to see some legendary angels flying onto the board turn 4 or 5 to accompany their smaller brethren. While angels are the creature type screaming to be cheated in we cant forget that WG Humans is a pretty powerful deck and this is only going to make it more so. While its going to be decent in Standard I am really excited to see the Eldrazi shenanigans with this bad boy in Modern. I can picture UG decks running Nest Invaders (which are also technically Eldrazi), Mutavaults and other Shapeshifters to cheat into play all of those giant Eldrazi we have learned to fear by now.

One last card worth mentioning is the newly announced demon, Harvester of Souls. Harvester is pretty powerful card in the right environment and I think he could be an invaluable source of card advantage in Junk Pod decks and even some zombie builds with the self-sacrificing sub-theme present in Mortar Pods and Fume Spitters.

All in all Avacyn Restored is shaping up to be one of the coolest and most game changing sets we have seen in quite a while. I really feel like the design team wanted to spice things up a bit and with the cards revealed so far it is safe to say they have. It is getting me incredibly excited for the titans to rotate out of standard because this set has really released so many awesome and unique finishers to replace them. For a complete list of the spoiled cards check out MTG Salvation!

One last thing I want to address is that I completely undervalued miracle. Holy crap is Temporal Mastery powerful. Especially in Legacy where you are able to put cards from your hand back on top of your deck. I could see TM or maybe even Brainstorm getting axed in the format simply because the combination of the two is going to be so incredibly powerful. Literally everyone is going to run blue. It is going to be stupid not to. For all of your AVR news tune in to Power Cords!

Filed Under: News, Other, Table top gaming Tagged With: Power Cords, review, Avacyn, avacyn restored, mtg, magic, angel, griselbrand, spoiler, miracle, AVR, temporal mastery, thoughts, soulbond, angels, demon, demons, moonfolk, moon, folk, tamiyo, the moon sage, harvester of souls, arcane melee, tandem lookout, devil, delver, rdw, aggro, descendants path, bruna, gisela, light of alabaster, blade of goldnight, planeswalker, planeswalkers, vexing devil, marshal ellison, table top games

Sphinxes, Demons, and Gorgons, Oh My! Part 1: Monocolored Cards

Precinct Captain

Sphinx of the Chimes

Underworld Connections

Ravnica Spoiler Review

Jace, Architect of Thought

New M13 Planeswalkers

M13 Spoiler Review

Planechase 2012 Spoiler Review

Entire AVR Set posted!

AVR Spoilers Batch 2 or 6 or Something

~Outwit

Second Guess

Lunar Mystic

~Devastating Tide

Riders of Gavony

~Dual Cast

~Wild Defiance

Exquisite Blood

Cavern of Souls

Avacyn Restored Spoilers Continue: The Powerpuff Girls

First AVR Planeswalker Revealed: Tamiyo

Recent Posts

The Cascadian Crew:

Recent Reviews

The Hobbit Review

Hotline Miami Review

Halo 4 Review

Dishonored – Review

Popular Posts

Like us on Facebook!

Follow Blog via Email

Meta

Follow “Power Cords”