Commander Adventures in Forgotten Realms 7PH Set Review

Hello 7point Highlander players,

Wizards are really trying to bury me with sets. There's so much product being pumped out. I'm struggling to keep up.
Have you ever found something you enjoy and then a few months later everyone is talking about it and after a few more months the souless commercial machine rolls in with a pop vinyl, various t-shirts, a mug, a monopoly version, etc. This has well and truly happened to Magic. Hasbro has got its hands on it and is wringing it. I love Magic, and WotC do a great job considering their small crew. I just hope it's temporary financial pressure from Hasbro that's to blame for all these bad short-term-gain decisions the last two years, and not WotC themselves.

Enough gloom, here's the set review in no particular order:

Perhaps this could be used in a Fecundity combo deck with all the 'X' and 'XX' cost creatures.

You'll gain card advantage but trade down on mana. Extends the ability to all your creatures, like a bad Leovold, Emissary of Trest..

Most planeswalkers are better threats but sometimes you're only interested in creatures for synergy reasons.

That guy's head is distractingly disproportionate.

5 mana to deal with anything is handy but inefficient. If you can reduce the cost, this gets really good, e.g. Thran Turbine or Zirda, the Dawnwaker

Big spell for decks that are only interested in sorceries and instants.

Good in a deck with lots of <4mana creatures with good ETB effects.

Maindeckable if you run a bunch of cheap instants and sorceries. Very good hate against Storm combo and Gifts Ungiven.

Good in artifact decks that are already sacrificing cheap artifacts to Arcbound Ravager and Krark-Clan Ironworks.

~ is an artifact intself, which helps with metalcraft, affinity and Tolarian Academy, etc.

Great in the current meta where players are running lots of cheap spells to fuel delve spells. If you're a midrange or aggressive deck you can maindeck this. Grixis and Temur typically don't run enchantment removal maindeck but they can of course counter it; Sideboard they do have Blue Elemental Blast and Hydroblast to destroy ~.

Very bad against heavy creature decks.

In my Adventures in the Forgotten Realms noncommander review I said that Bruenor Battlehammer and Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist only had Colossus Hammer to work with. Now we have a backup. so a single Shatter won't shatter the plan.

These days game winning creatures cost about 2 mana. Therefore you're paying approximately 6 mana to take control of a creature, but I think being able to pay that over two turns makes this good enough.

"You know that RB legendary warlock dude?" - "ummm, what's it do again?" - "You know, it has Mystic Arcanum and Pact Boon" - "ahh yes, I know the one".

~ effectively draws a card every turn. You'll win if he survives a couple turns. It's likely you'll get at least one end step trigger.

~ is slow, so you'll need plenty of disruption to survive whilst he does his thing.

Decent base stats and keyword abilities; add Mox Amber, some equipment or +1/+1 counter synergies, then you have a playable card.

For years I had a Mishra's Workshop beatdown deck that ran the various 4/4's for 4. They were decent stats when you were casting them off 2 or 3 lands. These days Tasigur, the Golden Fang and other delve creatures are bigger, so the Su-Chi's of this world need a little sumpinsumpin to make it, and Clay Golem's ability is just that. Artifact decks are low on removal, so it is better than it seems.
Also, shoutout to my homie 'Clayboy' who saved my ass thousands of times when I was a necromancer in Diablo2.

6 mana to effectively remove an artifact, creature or planeswalker. That's some great utility for strategies like Tolarian Academy, which generate lots of mana and don't need much coloured mana to function.

Sideboard only. 

Green Sun's Zenith now kills Sphinx of the Steel Wind and Inkwell Leviathan for 5 mana. You could already do it for 7 mana with Bane of Progress, but that was too much mana for some builds.

CONCLUSION

Nothing worth a points discussion.

Maddening Hex is a good sideboard card. Still gets blue blasted though.

Unfortunately I missed the recent big Melbourne event at Temple Arden due to Omichron. I have high hopes that Cancon, a.k.a 7point Highlander Nationals will go ahead. We've got a roadtrip and accommodation booked. Can't wait. Hopefully see you there!

Mulch