Hello!
Three blog posts in one month! I haven't done that since early 2016.
The structure of this set review is different to my others, it actually has structure. I'll be grouping the cards into the pre-con decks they come in. This may help you decide which, if any, deck you'll buy. As usual I'll be omitting cards that have been printed before. Any new cards which appear in multiple decks I'll duplicate to help with the deck selection thing, and to bulk up my article!
This guy is in all four pre-cons so it's separate.
Probably never gonna get played but if there's a deck with heaps of ways to tap it immediately, then it could be good for Strip Mining/Wastelanding repetitively or returning key lands like Mishra's Workshop and Tolarian Academy. Here are some cards which tap it ASAP:
FACELESS MENACE (SULTAI)
Morphs are slow and weak to removal unless you can flip them the turn you play them. Some morph cards are decent even without morphing them but they can't compete with most creatures of the same cost.
To make a good morph deck you'll need to cheat the morph ability or reduce the cost of casting your morphs. At the moment there aren't enough cards like Obscuring Aether and Skirk Alarmist to make morph a central strategy.
Hypothetically. if more of those effects get printed, Kadena will be a great payoff. If she doesn't die you'll win the game and if she does, she effectively cost only one mana and drew a card.
A good answer to enchantments for non-white non-green decks. Grixis control has been hungry for a card like this for a long time.
The more creature removal you have, the better this will be at snagging the enchantment.
Strong with Life from the Loam and Land Tax.
Is a way to get around detrimental ETB effects and casting costs, e.g. Phyrexian Dreadnought.
Instant speed is nice against sweepers.
MYSTIC INTELLECT (JESKAI)
In most cases 'Boros Gerrard' is worse than Body Snatcher in Flash + Protean Hulk combo because he can't discard combo pieces. However, sometimes in postboard games the opponent has so much hate that you can't combo off and plan-B is attack them with crappy creatures, which is realistic because most of their resources went into hating your combo. Depending on your Hulk kill, Gerrard may be better than Body Snatcher.
If you're playing a combo deck based around ≤3cmc things, then this is a great backup in case your combo pieces end up in the graveyard. If your combo is purely creature-based, there are better options.
Time Vault + Voltaic Key is an example of where Sevinne's Reclamation can be useful, especially in Gifts Ungiven piles.
Time Vault + Voltaic Key is an example of where Sevinne's Reclamation can be useful, especially in Gifts Ungiven piles.
This returns lands, which is unusual. Makes it quite versatile.
If you cast this from your graveyard with cards like Snapcaster Mage and Yawgmoth's Will, you will get to bring back two things, which is nice. This can backfire against Dire Fleet Daredevil though!, which has become a popular card.
An ok card for combo decks. Like a kicked Orim's Chant.
Can fog and perhaps also tempo them if they intended to cast their spell postcombat. The existence of this card may cause aggro and midrange decks to play everything precombat, which is interesting.
Can be an expensive Silence to protect your combo as long as you're not relying on combat.
Great at protecting permanent-based combos and big equipment turns. Even protects lands.
I used to like Benevolent Bodyguard and Selfless Spirit until Wrenn and Six got printed. Cliffside Rescuer does a similar thing to them but has that important two-toughness.
PRIMAL GENESIS
In the ever-growing camp of big value five-drops that are second to Titania.
Ghired is competing with Regisaur Alpha, Thragtusk, Deep Forest Hermit, Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves, Karmic Guide and more. In a grindy metagame you may want two or three of these, especially in Birthing Pod decks.
I can imagine him in the sideboard of an instant-speed combo deck where the opponent is likely to sideboard out their creature removal. This could be the case for some builds of Flash combo.
Very powerful. Best in a deck that wants the game to go long.
Consistently making tokens and still being able to disrupt combo is the key to making this work.
I did a search for the good token makers for Idol of Oblivion:
GENERALLY GOOD, i.e. fit into most themes:
Bitterblossom
Monastery Mentor
Elspeth, Knight Errant
Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
Tireless Tracker
Oko, Theif of Crowns
Titania, Protector of Argoth
Below are the other ones I found but they need to be built around:
ARTIFACT THEME. Idol of Oblivion being an artifact makes for a natural fit:
Thopter Foundry
Alela, Artful Provocateur
AGGRO THEME. Idol of Oblivion is not an aggro card but if you need to grind in some matchups it may actually fit:
Goblin Rabblemaster
MISC:
Young Pyromancer
MERCILESS RAGE
If they ever print a card with dredge and madness, Anje's value will skyrocket. Maybe if they print a dredge vampire we could use Falkenrath Gorger.
Good in Recurring Nightmare decks since she has a body and can discard fatties.
Good in Worldgorger Combo since she discards Worldgorger and finds a win condition when going off.
She can activate immediately but you probably won't have mana to cast madness spells until you untap. She still has a home in the madness deck though.
I've had a couple goes at building the deck in the past. Hasn't been good yet but I'll try it again now that it has more tools. Madness has an identity crisis. Most of the madness cards printed are aggro orientated but most of the discard outlets are control orientated.
I've had a couple goes at building the deck in the past. Hasn't been good yet but I'll try it again now that it has more tools. Madness has an identity crisis. Most of the madness cards printed are aggro orientated but most of the discard outlets are control orientated.
Hard to get value with Chainer if he dies before your next turn. You probably haven't got enough mana to cast Chainer AND a creature from the graveyard in the same turn. Realistically he's probably not playable but he's so cool and unique that I wanted to talk about him anyway.
A couple creatures that Chainer could help are Devoted Druid and Hermit Druid. They're cheap enough that there's a chance of casting them the same turn and giving them haste lets you combo.
Probably not playable but he combos with Thud if you can pay enough life that turn. Flavour win, he has Hatred.
Some ways you can pay a lot of life include Hex Parasite, Immolating Souleater, Necropotence, Channel, Lashwrithe, Plunge into Darkness.
Reverse Waste Not. Lots of combo potential here.
All you need is a free discard-outlet and that final trigger gets pretty crazy. If you have a noncreature nonland dredge card you can mill your whole deck.
Fun with Lion's Eye Diamond.
Discarding Dryad Arbor gives you a zombie and BB, which is cute.
Combos well with Greater Good. If more than half your deck is creatures you might be able to loot your whole deck and kill them with From Under the Floorboards or Army of the Damned.
Machine guns with Yawgmoth, Thran Physician.
I've seen a sweet deck using K'rrik, Children of Korlis and a bunch of black card draw to churn through the deck, reanimating Children of Korlis to keep going and eventually Tendrils of Agony.
Goryo's Vengeance brings him back, which is handy, and giving him haste to hit with lifelink gives you a chunk of black mana.
If they print a zombie that can sacrifice other zombies for life, then we can combo with Gravecrawler. I can imagine that being printed.
I'm always wary of creatures which must attack, too easy for the opponent to have a True-Name Nemesis or Vedalken Shackles or whatever. That attack trigger is powerful enough to be worth the risk though. If you have some instant removal spells you might even draw into it and kill their guys before blocks. Obviously you'll want to cast your hand as quickly as possible to minimise the number of cards you discard each attack. His cast timing can be interesting because you don't know what card you'll draw in your next draw step, and he won't be waiting for you.
This card is hilarious and very powerful. There are some 'win immediately' instants and sorceries out there, e.g. Enter the Infinite. If you can discard one before deviling, you have a 50% chance to win right there and you get more chances if the devils live.
Most opponents will be running instants and sorceries for you to cast.
Note that if the opponent is the randomly chosen player, they choose which instant/sorcery gets exiled but you control the copy, so you choose targets. You can also choose not to cast it, so you don't need to cast Wrath of God.
Note that if the opponent is the randomly chosen player, they choose which instant/sorcery gets exiled but you control the copy, so you choose targets. You can also choose not to cast it, so you don't need to cast Wrath of God.
The copy is cast from exile so Grafdigger's Cage doesn't stop it.
You shouldn't play effects that give you shroud.
If you play graveyard removal, you can exile the instants and sorceries that you'd rather not cast, leaving the juicy targets.
This is the best madness card ever printed. Totally wrecks control decks and most combo decks. Four mana is relatively slow, so you want free discard.
Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
Frantic Search
Liliana of the Veil
Dack Fayden
Lion's Eye Diamond (you could probably do this turn-one and still win)
Those are the already-popular outlets that don't require extra mana. You'll need to venture into Wild Mongrel territory for more cheap discard.
This enchantment may even be worth using Academy Rector to cheat it in.
CONCLUSION
Not many cards there. At $60 it's hard to justify buying any of the pre-cons just for Highlander cards. The madness deck in my opinion has the most playable new cards. Here are my picks for best cards in order of power:
Happy Highlandering,
Mulch
No comments:
Post a Comment