1) Blood Baron of Vizkopa
So first up is the the blood man himself. Blood Baron is just a good efficient creature. For a cmc of four he comes in as a 4/4 lifelinker pro white and pro black, so apparently he hates himself. The protection means that he dodge most major removal besides multiple burn spells/a Mizzium Mortars or Supreme Verdict, and his well size body means that it might take a couple blockers to take him down. Also he makes a great control finisher since the lifelink helps regain those lost points from casting thoughtseize and Read the Bones. Oh, and let's not forget that he has a chance to become a flying 10/10 meaning that he can easily put the game away. Blood Baron of Vizkopa is a great way to help stabalize and end most matches for any of the WB control strategies that are likely to pop up.
2) Ral Zarek
The man of the hour himself, Guildmage to the Izzet Ral Zarek. He is just an amazing planeswalker, and in my opinion he doesn't get the respect he deserves. His +1 allows you to tap down a blocker or any sort of trouble permanent like the god weapons and untap a land, a utility permanent of your own, or untap a blocker to help hold down the fort. Ral give a lot of options which can certainly come in handy in an UR or Grixis style control list. Next up his minus is a Searing Spear that still leaves him at a decent two loyal. While this does mean he could be burned away himself, hopefully the ability is just putting the game out of reach for your opponent or dealing with a key creature. And finaly his ultimate is just insane and full of flavor because it's one big experiment that gains you extra turns. Sure you have a possibility of getting zero turns, but you also have a possibility of five turns. I highly suggest that if you haven't ultimated Ral Zarek than you should find an excuse to do so. If you don't have any copies, I highly suggest that you go out and find him while he's still at or under $10 because I can seeing some deck performing very well with at least one mainboarded copy.
3) Legion's Initiative
OOOOOOOO BABY, Legion's Initiative just has so much going for it. I have always loved this card because it is just insanely powerful. It works as a Glorious Anthem for your multi-colored boros creatures, simply gives red creatures +1/+0, and helps give your smaller white creatures an extra +0/+1 to help make blocks even more proffitable. Not only that, but it can work as Boros Charm 5-8 by taking your guys off the field when a wrath hits or allow for an alpha strike only to crack initiative before your opponents combat giving you all your creatures back untapped. I won't go too much more in-dept about this card because my first article after a report of GP OKC will be a deck tech where I just abuse this card like no other. The only problem is that spear of helliod is trying to push it out of the format before it had a real chance to shine. In a mono-white or barely boros deck I can see where running spear is better, but in the deck I brewed up Legion's Initiative is just amazing. So stay tuned to see a list that truly shows the power of this card.
4) Voice of Resurgence
And now we get to possibly one of the biggest speed bumps for entering an archetype, Voice of Resurgence. There are so many cards that help make WG a powerful archetype, and one of those just so happens to be this guy who garners an insane price tag. That price tag of course goes with reason and Voice's abilities have a hidden piece of text that tells your opponent to either properly handle him or fear loosing the game. What all there is to be said about Voice of Resurgence has been said several times over and it's easy to see why the card gained it's price tag so quickly.
5) Far//Away
Far//Away is probably one of the best control split cards. It's certaily more powerful when fused for both halves, but each half on its own isn't bad either. Far is a cheap way of dealing with a pesky creature when you don't have access to Azorius Charm. And Away is good for getting rid of a creature entirely when it doesn't matter which one your opponent sacs. Together though, you can bounce a non-important creature and leave you opponent to decide which of their major creatures they want to keep around. It's a good card that certainly saw its fair share of constructed play, and I wouldn't expect to stop seeing it anytime soon.
6) Turn//Burn
Say hello to the bane of Boros Reckoner's or any other really powerful creature's existance. Where both parts of Far//Away function well on their own, in my opinion Turn//Burn is better as the package deal. Turn is by far a very powerful effect and does a good job at turning any chump blocker into a profitable block. Burn is just an over priced shock, which while it can kill little dorks and most of the more common RDW creatures it just seems lackluster compared to its other half. But together Turn//Burn is a powerful spell that can kill almost any creature.
7) Wear//Tear
Without Ray of Revelation anymore, white decks are going to need a better echantment removal. And with the current block being ehcantment based, with a slight focus on powerful artifacts as well, Wear//Tear is certain to take the spot for WR strategies. Unfortunately it doesn't kill gods, but you can just chain those to the rocks. Having already seen some sideboard play, I don't expect it's position to
change and it might even take up a couple more sideboard slots than it already did.
9) Gruul War Chant
What better way to combat control deck's Jace, Architect of Thoughts then by giving your creatures +1/+0, oh and did I mention that they have to be blocked by two or more creatures? I've seen it be tested with to great results in mainboards of Gruul aggro lists. Once control starts taking over the format again, I can see War Chant becoming at least a one of to finish the game against control. For now I have it as a two of in sideboards of lists I've been testing lately, but again as time goes on it might become a card I just put in the mainboard.
10) Sin Collector
Sin Collector and Thoughtseize are going to be the bread and butter for WB control's hand disruption for the control mirror. With the cards in tandem together, you can Thoughtseize a counter spell. Then turn three play collector and take something like a sphinx's rev. I was very impressed with this card in previous formats, but with aggro currently the deck to beat I expect this guy to stay in the sideboards for awhile before it seeing mainboard love when control and midrange reign supreme.
Honorable Mentions:
11) Advent of the Wurm
What could be better than playing a 5/5 trampler at instant speed? Advent is certainly one of the cards that gives GW midrange it's teeth.The downside is that there are several ways to get rid of the creature permanently that control decks available to them. However, if you feel like sleeving up some Voices and Fleecemane Lions expect to have a couple of this card in the mix as well.
12) Unflinching Courage
Good ol' Armadillo Cloak, er I mean Unflinching Courage. You all know what this card does and know why its good. Its certainly another card to sleeve up in any GW midrange list and I expect it to see some form of play as long as its standard.
13) Master of Cruelties
Master of Cruelties is my shaky pick for the set. With such a powerful ability it has to be good, unfortunately it doesn't have a home just yet. However, with the possibility of Grixis Superfriends on the horizon I would hope that this guy ends up as a big finisher for the deck. Even if it isn't the big finisher, a deathtouch first striker certainly makes one hell of a blocker.
Well guys that's it for Return to Ravnica block. Again I left some cards out on purpose and I might have forgotten about cards entirely, but I think the lists are still pretty solid. In the next couple articles I'm going to first have a report on what ever my performance ends up being from GP OKC this weekend and after that I'm going to write about a deck that I've had a lot of fun playing recently that I briefly touched on above in my mention of Legion's Initiative.
Thanks For Reading,
Zack
 | |
| #FREEDUANE |
No comments:
Post a Comment