Hello!
This is my Australian Highlander set review for Hour of Devastation. I'll just get straight into it.
I keep
hearing people asking store clerks for Braids and I'm like, "What? Isn't she
banned as a commander? What do you want with Braids, Cabal Minion?".
I expect to
see this played more in control decks rather than aggro decks; Aggro decks want
to burn face and exile creatures with their removal. Control decks value the
ability to kill diverse threats like Birthing Pod, Skullclamp and Smuggler's Copter. Being instant rather than sorcery is also key.
I've played
Fencing Ace in Death & Taxes before. It was 'passable', so Adorned Pouncer should
reach the rank of 'fine'.
With a
subtheme of creature pump in Death & Taxes, you can really get some value
from double strike creatures like Adorned Pouncer and Mirran Crusader. Double
triggers on Umezawa's Jitte and Sword of Fire and Ice are crazy albeit 'win
more'. Jumping a double striker with Elspeth, Knight-Errant is enough to win a
game. Even the +1/+1 from exalted creatures is nice.
I'm not
impressed by this card but the idea of putting Time Walk or Ancestral Recall
back on top of your library seems playable to me. Here's the kind of deck I
imagine it in: (to save time I haven't linked cards that I think everyone knows)
Bloodwater
Entity
Thing in the
Ice
Young
Pyromancer
Goblin Guide
Monastery
Swiftspear
Jace, Vryn's
Prodigy
Gitaxian
Probe
Ancestral
Recall****
Time Walk***
Lightning
Bolt
Chain
Lightning
Price of
Progress
Boomerang
Gush
Manamorphose
Preordain
Ponder
Brainstorm
Serum
Visions
Burning Wish
Thoughtscour
Mental
Misstep
Volcanic
Island
Steam Vents
Scalding
Tarn
Arid Mesa
Wooded
Foothills
Bloodstained
Mire
Flooded
Strand
Misty
Rainforest
Polluted
Delta
Mountain
Mountain
Island
Island
Island
Shivan Reef
Barbarian
Ring
SIDEBOARD
Bloodmoon
Magus of the
Moon
Surgical
Extraction
Null Rod
Ancestral
Visions
As featured
in the above decklist. I've seen a couple players try all-in Kiln Fiend decks with
Become Immense and Temur Battle Rage, to good effect. Crash Through would
perform best in those decks.
Perfect for
Recurring Nightmare decks. Also note that her ability checks on resolution, so
if you pump her in response with Become Immense, that's draw eight discard two! Might of Old Krosa, Groundswell, Might of Alara and Gaea's Might
are all awesome too. Champion of Wits works so well with pump that she could go in infect decks.
Surely has
some application in creature based graveyard combos. I might add it to my Hermit Druid combo deck. Seems perfect for that. Other decks might want it as a more
versatile Dragon Breath.
May find a
home in the Mishra's Workshop prison deck with Smokestack and Dust Bowl. Or
maybe a white-based lands prison deck. Something like this rough list I whipped
up:
Armageddon
Expedition
Map
Balance*
Life from
the Loam
Crucible of
Worlds
Sensei's
Divining Top
Sylvan
Scrying
Crop
Rotation*
Knight of
the Reliquary
Courser of
Kruphix
Tireless
Tracker
Scroll Rack
Exploration
Mox Diamond
Green Sun's
Zenith*
Darksteel
Citadel
Dark Depths
Strip Mine**
Savannah
Temple
Garden
Forest
Forest
Plains
Plains
Dust Bowl
City of
Traitors
Ghost
Quarter
Wooded
Foothills
Misty
Rainforest
Verdant
Catacombs
Windswept
Heath
Arid Mesa
Flooded
Strand
Marsh Flats
Wasteland*
SIDEBOARD
Maze of Ith
Qasali
Pridemage
Ghostly
Prison
Crucible of
Worlds on legs. Can be Green Sun's Zenith'd.
Great aggro
creature. Committee member Andrew Vance has already top4'd with it in Zoo.
Not much strategy involved with Earthshaker apart from 'lay the beats'. The
Eternalize token is black, which can help out against red hate.
I quickly
realised that I want to add these to sooo many of my decks. Untapped, colour-producing,
value lands. These are a relatively big addition to Highlander. All the blue
black delve decks will want Ipnu Rivulet. All the aggro burn decks will want
Ramunap Ruins. I've added Shefet Dunes to Death & Taxes. Ifnir Deadlands cleanly
kills Kitchen Finks and Glen Elendra Archmage, which is nice.
These lands
also cast Eldrazi but I don't expect players to push their mana base just for
Thought-Knot Seer, Matter Reshaper and Reality Smasher. Eventually wizards will
revisit the colourless mechanic and then we'll see.
Potentially
very powerful. Casting Wheel of Fortune in red aggro and drawing into this is
awesome.
Activate
Survival of the Fittest, find Vengevine, discard Vengevine finding Basking Rootwalla, discard Rootwalla and cast it finding Hollow One bringing back
Vengevine. That's pretty sick.
Also good in
red artifact reanimator: Goblin Welder, Daretti, Scrap Savant, Faithless
Looting, Tormenting Voice, Cathartic Reunion. I'll leave the rest to you!
There were
heaps of these in Amonkhet too. If anyone wants to build Living End in
Highlander, now's the time! They also changed the ruling regarding the CMC of
split cards: Before the changes, if you cascaded into Bound//Determined,
you would cast the Determined; That is no longer the case, now split cards have
a CMC of the sum of both halves in all zones except on the stack. This increases the
options of cascade decks.
We're
already spoiled for excellent colourless value lands. This land may fit in certain builds. Obviously great with fetchlands. Although what kind of
deck wants fetchlands and can afford colourless lands? All the three and four
colour good stuff decks don't even play Mishra's Factory, so it's an
interesting question.
It's worth
noting that opposing Deathrite Shamans and Scavenging Oozes could mess with
your Hostile Desert.
A
sideboard card in decks which don't play many creatures or
planeswalkers themselves. This card
is particularly good against the relatively popular green elf ramp decks which
have seen success lately (Tim Hughes' 3rd-4th list is the most recent big
tournament list).
Creature based ramp decks are typically weak to sweepers. The successful
Highlander ones use planeswalkers to hedge against creature sweepers. Hour of
Devastation happens to crush that plan, so it's positioned nicely. The green
decks do have Whisperwood Elemental and a couple ways to tutor for it though,
so they're not cold to Hour of Devastation.
Double tutor
for non-basic lands. Must be good. The aforementioned Gaea's Cradle ramp decks
may play it. Even finding two creature lands is ok when they already have their
Gaea's Cradle.
This finds both
Dark Depths and Thespian's Stage. If you also play red for Hanweir Battlements
and Flamekin Village, there's a good chance Marit Lage is hitting them next
turn for twenty, boom!
Tolarian
Academy decks have gone mono-blue as of late. Hard to tell if Hour of Promise
will sway them back to blue green. The possibility of finding a combination of
Tolarian Academy, Deserted Temple, Minamo, School at Water's Edge and Petrified Field is pretty enticing.
I've been playing
Gainsay in the sideboard of a couple of my decks. Jace's Defeat is strictly
better. Also you get reminded of how badass Nicol Bolas is.
Sideboard cards against burn. Able to be flashed back by Snapcaster Mage and Jace, Vryn's
Prodigy.
Combos with
Dark Depths! Powers Tolarian Academy and copies it for even more mana. Copies Gaea's Cradle. Combos with Time Vault. Decent against
reanimator decks.
So many
powerful effects.
Blue has a
decent number of beaters these days. Blue instant speed tempo decks seem excellent.
Use Flash and
Academy Rector to cheat in a one-sided Humility! Perhaps Bitterheart Witch plus
sacrifice effects could become a thing? Unlikely, but it's sweet. Other
strong curses include Curse of Misfortunes, Curse of Exhaustion, Curse of Death's Hold and Cruel Reality.
Might be
good with Gifts Ungiven or Realms Uncharted as a way to tutor for lands.
Titania, Protector of Argoth is wayyyy better but in Highlander
that's still good enough.
In general,
due to the one-of build restriction of Highlander and the strength of powered
cards, any card which gets back things from the graveyard is strong.
...yeahhh,
just. She's fine. I wouldn't fault anyone for playing Samut in a stompy deck.
Plenty of four-power three-drops that Samut can whip. The -2: Forked Bolt is
nifty against elves and planeswalkers.
Symmetrical,
so not great if you're relying on your own graveyard. Yes, it exiles itself.
I really like this in counterspell decks which can afford to hold up mana all the time. If your opponent has graveyard shenanigans, they can see the Scavenging Grounds sitting amongst your lands, they're not going to walk into it. But by staying instant speed you never give them an opportunity to do their thing.
I really like this in counterspell decks which can afford to hold up mana all the time. If your opponent has graveyard shenanigans, they can see the Scavenging Grounds sitting amongst your lands, they're not going to walk into it. But by staying instant speed you never give them an opportunity to do their thing.
It's worth
noting that Flash Hulk combo is alive and really scary. It gets worse,
Scavenging Grounds isn't even good against it. They just go get Titania,
Protector of Argoth and Sylvan Safekeeper. I recommend everyone switch their Tormod's Crypts and the like for
Rest in Peaces and Leyline of the Voids.
I know
there's something you can pull with this. Phyrexian Unlife is the one everyone
knows. There's probably others. Not a bad combo to tutor up with Enduring Ideal. Haven't seen that deck before. Maybe could fit into Enchantress.
Infinite
with Intruder Alarm, so are a lot of things, but this is the only two-mana one.
Possible
applications in Oath of Druids to prevent you from milling yourself. There have
always been cards which do this, but none with a useful removal spell front
side.
Honourable Mentions
If mill ever
becomes viable in Highlander, this card will be in it for sure. I believe mill
just became playable in Modern with the printing of this card.
If you find
yourself playing against this, you can cast instants and
crack fetchlands during the endstep to avoid the trigger timing.
Another
expensive win condition. I suspect he'll get played even though he's probably a
little bit worse than other win cons. Players just love Bolas.
His first
ability is bad against Sensei's Divining Top, which is pretty funny.
When you
plan to cast seven drops, you better have a plan against counterspells. Someone
could just Mana Leak you and it's a complete blowout.
Once upon a
time land destruction was a viable strategy. If more cards like Liliana, the Last Hope get printed and force mana elves out of the format, then land
destruction could make a comeback. Very unlikely this will happen though.
Ok, that's does it for the set review. In summary I think the coloured deserts will see a decent amount of play, as will Abrade and Scavenging Grounds.
I'm glad we'll be taking a break from the Gatewatch. Next up, Commander 2017 and then
Cheers,
Mulch
P.S. If anyone knows of some code which automatically adds pop-up links to any card names it recognises in an article, that would be awesome.
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