I've been quiet the last couple weeks but I've had alot going on and just
started my newest round of summer classes, yay college. I know that in my last
article I mentioned that I'd talk about my overall thoughts on the RtR block. At the time that was my plan for this article, but since several weeks have gone by
and M14 being released this past weekend I wanted to go ahead and give my
thoughts on the set. Now I really enjoy limited, but not being able to take
place in a prerelease and due to the fact that I haven't gotten to draft the set yet the purpose of the article is to look at the cards from a constructed
standpoint and maybe drop a few thoughts on them in limited. Maybe in a couple
of weeks after I've had a chance to draft the set a couple of times I'll talk
about it from a limited standpoint, but I've heard from several people that it
isn't that great of a limited environment. Anyway, without further adieu let's
get started.
Alright so first I want to start with the elephant in the room, the Slivers. Now
I wasn't playing when the old slivers where a real thing, so this is my first
time encountering them. Having no ties to the slivers of old I have no real
problem with these new designs and their abilities not being universal pumps.As
well universal pumps have been out of magic for a while now, with lord type
creatures only effecting creatures their owner controls. So that's fine, as for
their looks I get that people enjoyed the weird insect like looks of the old
ones. However, since their entire mythos revolves around their ability to evolve
I have no problem in them changing their physical forms. Now that that has been
covered, here are my thoughts on them from a constructed stand point. In the months between M14 and Theros release I think that a naya sliver deck may have a
chance of becoming a thing in standard with Cavern of Souls and running some of
the better rare slivers Bonescythe Sliver being possibly the most important.
However once the Innistrad and M13 duals rotate out I think that Slivers will
suffer due to the lack of great mana base. As well, with all aggressive styles
one Wrath of God type card will just destroy the decks in constructed,
especially since alot of the better slivers are four cost or higher. My real
thought on Slivers is that they are a way to help show incoming players
synergies between creatures of the same type since they might have missed that
in Innistrad block, and give draft players a very easy archetype to try and get
into. So while Cavern of Souls is standard legal I would expect it to be called
on Slivers at least once in a tournament, but post rotation I wouldn't give the
deck much of a thought.
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| Original Joke Right? |
Lorwyn planeswalkers, Chandra and Garruk. Garruk seems like a very straight
forward guy, you play him and draw a bunch of cards or you sneak in something
like a Craterhoof Behemoth giving great value. However he requires a really
specific build, lot's of creatures and not much else. Maybe you can get away
with some Domri's and some other small stuff but that's about it. Another
problem I have with this guy is that he doesn't protect himself. Sure you can
use his negative and cheat in a guy to protect him, but that will leave him at 1 loyaty meaning that a stray Lingering Souls token can just pick him off.And
that's a really big problem for the guy, as a six mana investment his initial
payoff just doesn't wow me. Unless you can cheat in a game winning card like
Hoof or draw into what you need, then he's perfect. If this doesn't happen then
you're just kind of stuck and time walking yourself. This being said I think he
has alot of potential, but once the linchpin cards like Thragtusk and Craterhoof rotate out right now he'll be dead in the water. Moving onto Chandra, on paper
she looks really amazing but in testing she's been kind of lack luster. Sure
there are some games when her +1 can allow you to get around that pesky Boros
Reckoner, but most of the times it'll just be a way to get her close to ultimate and out of the easy kill range. Even then though uless you hit a really sweet
burn spell her ultimate just doesn't do that much for me. And her 0 is just not
where you want to be on curve with her. It's just an attempt from WoTC to say
that they've given red some sort of draw engine. As well she suffers from the
Garruk symdrome where she needs to be built around, but her main problem is
figuring out exactly what shell she fits into burn or aggro. Also she'll suffer
post rotation when alot of the great burn spells will rotate out. I really hope
she manages to find a home, since there hasn't been a deck to really utilize
Chandra as long as I can remember.
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| Another Year, Another Chandra +1 deal 1 damage |
As for the non-planeswalker mythics in the set there certainly are some possibilites with for a couple of them, while others seem like bulk mythics. The easy one to point out is Archangel of Thune. Don't expect her to cross into modern or legacy, but I think she has a very good chance to be a standard allstar. There are so many ways to gain life in the big decks of the current standard meta, and people are already willing to play Gavony Township. The difference with Archangel and Township is of course the mana cost of Archangel having double white, but with the amount of mana fixing in the format I think she'll work wonders in a bant shell. Shadowborn Demon has some potential in my opinion, but nothing competitive viable. Combo'd with his Apostle though and I think they'll make for a fun FNM deck, but for now don't take him to a PTQ or Star City Open. One mythic that is currently recieving alot of hype is Kalonian Hydra and my current opinion on him is, meh. Unless you haste him up or cheat him in with some sort of instant on the end of your oponent's turn, hint hint, he just doesn't do much for his first turn. Right now in the format we have a several really good green five drops in the form of Thragtusk, Wolfir Silverheart, and Garruk, Primal Hunter. We all know what Thragtusk does and he is easily one of the biggest standard staples right now. On the other side of the coin is Wolfir Silverheart, the card that dominated PT Honolulu but hasd ropped of since then. He might not have an immediate effect on the battlefield the first turn is out, but he will pump one of your creatures and turn himself into and 8/8 making combat math a nightmare once you get going. As for Primal Hunter, he's Primal Hunter and need no other words of persuasion to get you to play him. Kalonian Hydra however like I said has no immediate impact on the board and gives your opponent some time to figure out how to deal with him, and unless you're playing and evolve deck or playing Archangel of Thune or Gavony Township the card will only be pumping itself. The other mythics are kind of just there, the Sphinx is pretty crap, Scourge of Valkas will find a good home in some casual tribal dragon deck, Devout Invocation is a worse version of Entreat the Angels and doesn't even allow you to really attack, Rise of the Dark Realms is just too expensive but has a really neat ability, and while Primeval Bounty seems to have alot of potential it'll take a while before it sees some use. Lastly the artifact mythics seem cool, but have no real place in standard right now. Ring of Three Wishes might see some fringe play in control decks or Turbofog, but it just doesn't seem worth it for the amount of resources needed to be poured into it. Just as well Darksteel Forge, while it might be hinting at a bigger presence of artifacts coming up in Theros, there just isn't a good home for it in Standard and could easily just be one of the cards printed for things like EDH.
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| Please don't pay into the hype |
Moving away from the mythics I want to take a look at the Enemy Hate Cycle of
rares in the set. Each of them is creature with some ability that belongs to
their color on the pie and hates on their enemy colors. These creatures are
white's Fiendslayer Paladin, blue's Tidebinder Mage, black's Lifebane Zombie,
red's Mindsparker, and green's Witchstalker. The Cream of the Crop for these
creatures are easily Paladin, Zombie, and Witchstalker. With the reprinting of
Brave the Elements and the presence of great enchantments like Unflinching Courage this first striking lifelinker 2/2 for three is a great threat coupled with his psuedo
protection from red and black and nothing will be able to touch him. Needless to say that I picked up my playset, and if you can get him for around $3-4 he's a
great deal and will surely hover around $5 for quite some time. Lifebane Zombie
is also amazing, since his hate ability of exiling a white or green creature
from your opponent's hand should almost always be turned on since those are the
colors of most of the staple creatures in the format, and intimidate is nothing
to scoff at. While unlike Fiendslayer Paladin and Witchstalker I have yet to get a playset of him yet, but it certainly wouldn't be a bad idea moving forward.
Speaking of Witchstalker, that guy is just insane. I don't know what the problem is, but WoTC is just hating on control now. Just think about it, you land him
and then try and play another threat if your opponent goes to counter
Witchstalker will just grow. Even without the hate, a 3/3 hexproof for three is
just really good. After doing some testing, this guy in Bant Hexproof is just
insane and will easily take over the game. As for the other two hate creatures I think that Mindsparker certainly has a lot of potential, and once snap caster
rotates and makes Ash Zealot obsolete he'll be a great card to turn too.
Tidebinder Mage on the other hand is certainly not meant for standard play
currently. I do think she'll see some use in maybe sideboards of legacy merfolk
as another way to hand the stray Tarmogoyf and things of that nature.
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| Somebody Notify Saban and Disney |
When it comes to rares outside of the hate cycle there ceratinly are several of
note and possibility like Quicken, Burning Earth, Grim Return, Awaken the
Ancient, Dark Prophecy, and Shivan Dragon. I'd keep an eye on these cards, but
don't expect them to take off rather quickly. Now let's look at the rares that
are of great mention. First up is Silence, this reprint is something I was not
happy to see. Don't get me wrong, I'm fine with the reprint but WoTC should have waited till Snapcaster rotated out. It's just a nightmare thinking of turn two
Silence into turn three Snapcaster Silence. This might be away to push Blitz out of the format, but it just might do a lot more damage than good. In my opinon
though the real white rare to keep an eye out for, besides Fiendslayer, is
Imposing Sovereign. It's just the nuts, and is the perfected form of Blind
Obedience. Now that the ability has a body attached to it, the effect has a good purpose. Having tested it in all sorts of aggro decks, it's safe to say that
those are the shells where the card belongs. Allowing you to sneak in around
those pesky control blockers like Augur, Restoration Angel, and Thragtusk. Also
if your opponent isn't carefull they can easily Resto an untapped Thrag leaving
them with no blockers to combat your attack. Next up is easily the value rare of the set, Scavenging Ooze. Now don't expect him to hit Thragtusk levels anytime
soon, but he should hover around $10-15 for a decent amount of time as long as
reanimator is a threat. He's just an all around great card. It will allow
players to disrupt things from undying to Melira Pod. If you don't already have
a playset the card is a must have. Keeping with green cards I want to touch on
Savage Summoning. Now right now i'm of mixed feelings with the card. The upside
is that it makes your next creature you cast that turn uncounterable and gives
it flash and a +1/+1 counter once it enters. It just does so much for a creature
it's wonderfull. Imagine playing this into a Predator Ooze, when the easiest way
to kill and Ooze is to slip it before it can grow the counter makes it so he'll
survive even that. The downside of the card though is that it will delay plays
by a turn so you have the mana for the Summoning and the creature you want to
play afterwards. It has alot of potential, but I think it will mostly be
relegated to sideboards which I where I'll have it for the time being.
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| Bow Before Me Peasants! |
So funny story, I was going to just skip over this next rare until the SCG Open
happened over the weekend where this card helped a brand new deck become crowned champion. That card being Xathrid Necromancer. At first I new this guy had
potential and after a little time with it some of the better deck builders would
make something special of it, and they certainly did. For a brand new architype
to win an open the weekend that one of it's best cards became standard is
amazing and shows the power of the card and also how good a decently strong deck
can do on an unsuspecting meta game. Well enough of my ramblings on it, check
out the deck here and look up Top 8 footage on starcitygames.com to see why the
deck is so strong. Unfortunately though besides Necromancer and Lifebane Zombe
there just isn't anything in the black rares that do alot for me. I'm also going
to skip over blue because besides some good casual rares there isn't anything
exciting. Real quick though, don't play Elite Arcanist because in the immortal
words of Admiral Akbar "IT'S A TRAP"! Red on the otherhand has a lot of good
stuff. First off, Chandra's Phoenix is a welcome repring and will hopefully see
alot of use post rotation since a recuring threat is something that RDW has
greatly needed as of late now that list are starting to survive the initial
onslaught of the early turns and just wrath away the board. Another rare that
won't have time to shine until rotation hits and we have to say goodbye to
Hellrider is Ogre Battledriver. Now he may not look like much but in a solid
Young Pyromancer deck he'll be amazing and to make things better he turns your
late game top decked Rakdos Cacklers in to hastey 4/2's. The card is easily a 2
-3 of in any RDW strategy post rotation and come late September I hope to see
him getting some love.The other really interesting red rare is Golbin Diplomats.
Now I don't expect him to be fully standard viable, but I think the card is an
excelent sideboard card/ 2 of in a midrangey deck if you expect games to hit a
decent sized board stall.
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| Akbar's Thoughts on Elite Arcanist |
Now that we're done with rares I want to quickly run down some of the
uncommons/commons to keep an eye out for. Firstly is Young Pyromancer. The card
is amazing and people should get playsets+ of this guy. He just does so much and
can create amazing board states, while I don't fully agree with Evan Erwin
calling this guy Legcay Viable I do think he'll have some potential outside of
standard in the right decks. Point being, just ge this guy and get him now. As
for other uncommons look for Brave the Elements and Banisher Priest out of
white, Doom Blade out of black, and Kalonian Tusker out of green. I'm really
hedging my best that Brave the Elements will hopefully bring back a good 'ol
White Weenie strategy, and it will if I have any say in it. As for Banisher
Priest, I don't know if I really like her over her cousin Fiend Hunter. While
this makes the card more appealing to aggro decks, I think that the defensive
body on Hunter is where the card wants to be.The card also features the new
wording for the Fiend Hunter effect, which just makes me with that the text on
Hunter would have just been updated.When it comes to Doom Blade, it's Doom Blade
nuff said. Now Kalonian Tusker, I get that we can't have Strangleroot Geist back
but without something like rancor my hopes for this 3/3 for GG are a little more
dim than they once were. Hopefully with Theros being enchantment based I can
keep Mono Green alive with another Rancor reprint. Lastly, the only real common
of note is Shadowborn Apsotle. It's a really fun ability and as I said above
with Shadowborn Demon I hope the card can be used in a very fun FNM but nothing
more than that. Pick up as many as you can though because if Relentless Rats
taught us anything, card with an effect like that will hover around $1 for quite
some time. But then again this isn't exactly Relentless Rats.
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| You Want Value? I Got Value |
Well that's it for this very long article guys. If you think I missed a card of
note, undervalued a card, or overvalued one feel free to leave a comment and
I'll be glad to discuss my thoughts on the cards. I don't have anything exciting
planned for the next couple articles, so stay tuned for some new decks I've been
working on.
Zack
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| Magic Funnies for the Week |
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