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Ah, set rotation - time for what will be my third annual Top 10 list: A list of cards from Masques Block sets that should be included in the next basic set.
First, a word about cheating: When someone cheats, someone else is cheated. When someone falsifies tournament reports, dozens or even hundreds of people are cheated. When dozens or hundreds of people are cheated, a five-year suspension sounds like a light punishment.
Back to the list!
Let's start with the ground rules for what will and what will not be included. Cards with game mechanics that are unique to Masque Block will not be included. Spellshapers, Mongers, fading permanents, and Rhystic spells will not be included. These cards are not going to be reprinted in a basic set, anyway. We don't have flanking, phasing, buyback, echo, or cycling in 7th Edition.
Rebels, mercenaries, and alternate casting cost spells won't be included either. Since we had pitch spells back in Alliances, I don't view ACC as a something unique to Masques Block. We already have one mercenary (Spineless Thug) in 7th Edition. Pitch spells have not made it into any basic set, so I think it is unlikely that ACC spells would make it. While it is possible that some rebels or mercenaries would be reprinted, I think it is very unlikely that any searchers will be.
Overpowered cards are not going to be on the list. Oh, that's right - we're talking Masque Block. We probably don't have to worry about overpowered cards. Saproling Burst is already precluded, due to fading. The only card that really comes to mind is Rishadan Port. Blinding Angel and Nether Spirit are two popular cards that just miss the list. They are probably not too powerful to be reprinted, but I left them off because Blinding Angel has the potential just shut down too many decks, and Nether Spirit is just too damn annoying.
So what's on the list? Just good playable cards.
10) Story Circle
Blinding Angel just misses the list because it shuts down too many decks; the same could almost be said of Story Circle. Story Circle can not actually win games by killing your opponent; Blinding Angel can. The double-white in the casting cost, coupled with the fact that it can not be activated with colorless mana, combine to make it palatable - and Story Circle just barely gets on the list. We have had Circles of protection since Alpha, and they have never ruined the game. As far as I am concerned, you can dump all five and just give us Story Circle.
9) Pack Hunt
The best green cards in the block have fading and are not eligible for the list. This leaves very few green cards for consideration, but I felt that at least one should be included. I narrowed the list to four cards: Ancestral Mask, Collective Unconscious, Hunted Wumpus, and Pack Hunt. Ancestral Mask was a fun card, and could certainly have gone into a would-be Enchantress Deck. Ancestral Mask would be an excellent card to reprint, but it is not good enough for a top 10 list. Collective Unconscious is the kind of card that green really needs, but I hate combo decks and the combo potential (as small as it may be) keeps Collective Unconscious off my list. Hunted Wumpus is a cool card, but green has enough marginal fatties already, so why bother?
This leaves Pack Hunt as the only green card on the list. I think this card was overlooked. Pack Hunt had tremendous synergy with some of the decent green creatures of Urza Block. I used it in a deck with Yavimaya Elder (the green Ancestral Recall) and Maro. Deranged Hermit comes to mind as well. Even with lowly birds and elves, three cards for one - come on, people! I would like to see this card reprinted in 8th Edition, along with some good comes-into-play creatures to hunt for, like Wall of Blossoms and Uktabi Orangutan.
Whatever happened to black and graveyard recursion? Haunted Crossroads should replace Stands of Night in 8th Edition - end of debate.
7) Flame Rift
Mono-red beatdown is a lost art in Magic, and red in many ways is the lost color, having neither a viable beatdown (Sligh) nor control (Ponza) strategy available. I agree with Rizzo that Flame Rift was seriously under-played, as is Final Fortune.
Reprinting Flame Rift will not make mono-red beatdown a viable strategy again; what's really missing from the strategy is efficient creatures. The ability to deal four damage to your opponent for two mana is a step in the right direction. Besides, it's fun to cast Flame Rift against someone playing control and ask,"share a Rift?"
Land Destruction is a lost art in Magic, and red in many ways is the lost color, having neither a viable beatdown (Sligh) nor control (Ponza) strategy available... Oh I already said that, must be senility. Tectonic Break and Rishadan Port are the last cards left that made land destruction viable; Rishadan Port because of its speed, Tectonic Break because it allowed for a potentially devastating effect.
5) Dustbowl
Much of the risk of playing multi-colored decks has been mitigated by the proliferation of multicolor producing non-basic lands. There ought to be some risk in playing too many non-basic lands, beyond just painland damage. More importantly, there should be cards that actively challenge multi-colored strategies just like the color hosers that challenge mono-colored strategies.
It's clear that Destructive Flow is not making the grade. It is also clear that Wasteland (which I much prefer to Dustbowl) and Dwarven Miner are not going to be reprinted. Dustbowl should be reprinted. It fits into any mono colored deck as a sort of multi-color hoser for single color decks. Yet it is far from being over-powered, like its stable mate the Rishadan Port.
Paying three to five mana to kill a single land each turn is not going to win many games in the current Type II environment, even with the proliferation of color screw vulnerable, three color decks, spawned by Invasion Block. In order for land destruction to be a viable archetype, it needs either good multi-function cards - like Avalanche Riders and Rishadan Port - or potential gamebreakers like Tectonic Break. It probably needs both.
4) The Seals
I think the Seals were good for the game. In many ways, they were quite inferior to their instant cousins; in some ways, they were better. Seal of Fire (clearly the best of the Seals) could sneak onto the board on turn one, making the other player think before playing any one or two toughness creature. An early Seal of Cleansing almost demanded the other player deal with it before casting a powerful artifact or enchantment, like Millstone or Saproling Burst. While a Seal of Strength is not generally as good as a Giant Growth, the other player generally can not ignore the in-play Seal of Strength. Seal of Removal could be played early as well, allowing both the chance to bounce an opposing creature or your own. Tap out for a fatty without counterspells to protect it, knowing that you can at least return it to your hand with a Seal. Even Seal of Doom was playable and had a synergy with cards like Distorting Lens that can change the color of a permanent like Seal of Doom, but can not change the color of an instant like Dark Banishing.
In short, the Seals made players think differently; cards that make players think are good for the game. The only thing I do not like about the seals has nothing to do with the seals themselves. What I don't like about all enchantments is the lack of good enchantment removal to all but a single color in Magic.
A three-power flyer for three mana? Sounds undercosted, yet its one toughness and inability to block groundpounders makes for a balanced card. I would just about guarantee that this blimp would see more play in 8th edition than the underplayed Wind Drake of 6th and 7th edition. A no-brainer for reprint!
2) Vendetta
Dark Banishing replaced Terror in 7th Addition. When Snuff Out and Vendetta rotate out, black will be left with no cheap removal spells (I have not read the Odyssey spoilers) that were once a hallmark of the color. Instant speed removal for one black mana is phenomenal. Paying in life as well makes Vendetta another well-balanced card.
What a great card! A 3/3 creature for three colorless mana, a colorless damage source to get around Story Circle and COPs, and one that survives Wrath of God and Earthquake effects - that's a great card. Yet Chimeric Idol is well balanced by its very steep activation cost; the fact that it is an artifact is, of course, what made ‘Chimi' a colorless damage source. It also meant that it could be destroyed by artifact removal as well as creature removal. Being an artifact also meant that any deck could use it, which certainly contributed to its widespread use.
While Chimeric Idol has seen very wide use, I don't think that anyone views the Chimi as overpowered. Keep in mind that the ACC spells will be long gone when 8th Edition rolls around, making the Chimi's activation cost much harder to play around. Base sets should be filled with cards that people will actually play. People will play Chimeric Idol, it is not overpowered, and it should be reprinted.
Rich Ary
arymr@email.msn.com
