Innovations – Scars of Mirrodin Set Review Part 4

Today’s installment is Part 4 of a relatively thorough examination of Scars of Mirrodin. Artifacts were covered in
Part 1
and
Part 2 with Red Land and Gold covered in
Part 3.

Continuing in the same style we’re going to primarily focus on possible applications rather than attempt to rate cards. I discuss how likely it is that each of these cards will see play as well as how much each will be played but I tend to avoid strict ratings as I haven’t seen a rating system that I feel comfortable using save perhaps Flores’ flagship/staple/role player/unplayable system which I borrow heavily from.

I know these installments are a bit long so if the length is too much I recommend reading them parts at a time as well as bookmarking and using Ctrl-F to find references to particular cards during brainstorming sessions. Let’s get to it!

Green

While these are far from embarrassing stats I just don’t see Acid Web Spider being worth the opportunity cost in Standard.

Would she (Thanks Mr. Nightmare!) be a nice five-drop against any equipment? Sure. Would she still be a halfway passable dude against decks without equipment? Sure. Is she anywhere near as good as the planeswalkers Titans or the other amazing stuff you could be doing? Not a chance.

Acidic Slime is much better at being this card as its body is only slightly worse but the card has a hundred more applications.

In Limited she is fairly wicked. I like big butts and I cannot lie. This Limited format has many infect creatures ways of dealing small amounts of damage and incidental 1/1s that can all add up pretty quickly to take down a 5/3 whereas a 3/5 can put in some serious work. It is not insignificant that Galvanic Blast and Grasp of Darkness are each one short making this Web Spider tough Acid to drop. Add to this that she calmly quietly professionally takes out equipment of all sorts (and of which there’s no shortage) and you have a winner.

Because all Craw Wurm was missing was that extra point of toughness!

Alpha Tyrranax would be lucky to see play in Constructed at four mana so let’s just move straight to Limited. It’d be wild speculation to attempt to gauge the relative value of green fatties in this format compared to previous but I should like to mention that the extra point of toughness seems well suited to this world given the presence of infect and the greater difficulty in dealing with this Beast.

According to Merriam-Webter:

1: practicing strict self-denial as a measure of personal and especially spiritual discipline
2: austere in appearance manner or attitude

I always took Troll Ascetic to be more of #2 than #1. This card is very very different than Troll Ascetic despite outward appearances. Troll Ascetic was a modest workhorse that may not have had power through the roof but he was a scrapper that carried himself just fine when his abilities weren’t relevant and would single-handedly win some games particularly against poorly prepared opponents. He was a good honest card that only really beat up on hosy jerk faces anyway.

Asceticism is a five-mana enchantment that grants all of your creatures a couple of abilities but doesn’t have the power/toughness modification that we would generally ask for. The amount of “value” you’re getting for your mana is actually fairly low making the card a somewhat dubious path to explore especially given that it’s a solution in search of a problem.

What exactly is it that you’re actually trying to protect with this thing anyway? You could have spent that five mana on Venser or Baneslayer. You still need another two to protect your guys!

All that out of the way it cannot be denied that this actually does have a pretty tremendous impact on the board assuming you have that kind of time and mana. There’s no shortage of awesome creatures that don’t protect themselves that would be very happy if you did it for them. Outside of just making creatures untargetable you also pretty much own creature combat now as a result of the regeneration half.

The huge cost to invoke this particular brand of Magic has me setting it aside until inspiration strikes but the relatively unique and game-changing abilities are at least exciting enough to have it on my list of cards to watch. It could probably never survive as “industry standard” given how easy it is to beat the card with only passing effort (War Priest of Thune Nature’s Claim Into the Roil All Is Dust even charging a Ratchet Bomb a little extra) but it has the makings of a surprise tool used for precision. You don’t just Asceticism for the hell of it. This is a card that is used for very specific purposes.

In Limited it’s certainly slow but the ability to totally dominate combat the turn after you play it as well as blanking all removal and lots of abilities has me thinking that this card is pretty good and worth being one of the slow cards in your deck.

Wow so green intimidate huh? Am I the only one that feels the color pie stretching? Of course the Tanglewurm actually has a very understandable flavor. So often green gets to pick on green and artifacts with no end of forestwalking and artifact hosing. It’s kind of appealing that there’s a card that’s hosed by green and artifacts.

When it comes to actually playing this guy in Limited he’s pretty sweet though not as insane as he’d be in any other set given the large number of artifact creatures floating around. Still a 4/4 for five mana is respectable and the fact that he grants the ability to all of your green creatures ensures that you can get a lot of little advantages out of him. I think I’d rather have good rares or removal but he’s pretty good for a five-drop.

I could see Constructed environments where you’d actually want this guy. For instance if you had a Mono-Green Elf deck and wanted a sideboard card against a Mono-White Creature deck a 4/4 that makes all your creatures unblockable is pretty hot – all things considered.

All of the two-drop infect creatures are good and all will see play in Constructed. I discuss at length thoughts on two-drop infect creatures in both
Part 1
and
Part 2
of this set review (Ichorclaw
Myr and Necropede) and do so even more in
Part 3
in the section on Assault Strobe.

Long story short they work best when they’re used ultra-aggressively as strange sorts of double strike weenies. Blight Mamba‘s regeneration ability is excellent on both offense and defense assuring him a slot as a four-of in any poison aggro deck that can cast him.

When it comes to Limited Blight Mamba continues to perform. Infect is pretty good anyway and Blight Mamba‘s ability makes him a force to be reckoned with especially if you can enhance him with equipment of some sort. He’s fast efficient and aggressive – my kind of Scars Limited card.

You get half of a Congregate and all of a Fog? That’s actually kind of interesting if you’re the type that casts either of those cards in competitive play. For the first time ever there’s no Howling Mine but that won’t stop Howling Mine junkies from “inventing” Turbo Fog like they always do every single year. This time it’ll use Temple Bell and some amount of Jaces of either variety (probably the little one as people that play Turbo Fog decks are the type).

Once you’re set on playing a Turbo Fog deck Blunt the Assault is actually a pretty sweet Fog blunting the attack as it were as well as gaining a pretty healthy boost of life on top of that. With both Fog and Blunt the Assault legal one can imagine that a pure U/G Turbo Fog deck could be given life to amusingly with actual Fog for a change. This is a pretty good way to spice up a joint like this but to put it bluntly a salt is not always what the brew needs more of.

Outside of Turbo Fog decks I could maybe imagine possibly wanting to mise this as the nut topdeck sideboard stone-blade if the stock underlying beatdown texture of the subtle nuanced contours of the metagame stages required just the right amount of next level tempo or card advantage.

In Limited you aren’t usually going to want to run this beast main but the one time you do it’ll be
sick.
It does make a fine sideboard card as well as it does have a pretty nice impact on a specific couple of archetypes; although the life gain is greatly diminished in value in Scars of Mirrodin as a result of the prevalence of infect creatures and their non-caring stance on life gain.

Carapace Forger is the archetypal metalcraft beatdown creature. Getting a 4/4 for two is a pretty good deal and worth doing a (very) small amount of work for. Even when you haven’t achieved metalcraft you’re still talking about a 2/2 for two which is far from embarrassing.

The biggest obstacle standing in Carapace Forger‘s way is actually Fauna Shaman. The fact that Carapace Forger costs the same amount forces him to justify why you wouldn’t want to Fauna Shaman instead. The problem with Fauna Shaman-ing is that once you start down that road he sort of takes over your deck.

Okay so let’s say you aren’t on Fauna Shaman. What’s your other color? The natural partner is white with cards like Auriok Edgewright providing redundancy to ensure you’re getting paid for going to all the trouble.

Now the question becomes: what artifacts are you going to use to power your metalcraft? You can go the artifact creature route (as well as the obligatory Mox Opals) but sooner or later you have to consider Adventuring Gear particularly given how well it interacts with the Edgewright.

Once you’re experimenting with Adventuring Gear it’s a slippery slope before you have Stoneforge Mystic. Once you’re at that point it becomes harder and harder to remember why you aren’t playing Fauna Shaman a card easily at least an order of magnitude better than any of those cards. If it’s worth setting down the Fauna Shaman it’d have to be in an effort to be
really
fast.

In Limited he’s pretty awesome with the biggest restriction being his not playing well with infect creatures. That said he can be great at holding the fort while those down with the sickness do the disturbing dirty work.

Once your opponent is at five poison counters you make your move. With absolutely no expression not the slightest trace of emotion
turn Carapace Forger sideways
.

Put yourself in his shoes. Assuming he’s a decent player he has to know that you could have a Tainted Strike. There’s a very non-zero chance that you’re able to force some chumps out of fear. The key is whether they’re good enough to realize this and actually have a position where they can try to play around it. The rest of the time you should just actually have it.

Everyone likes card advantage that says “Draw a card” but you should always remember that card advantage cards that don’t have the words “Draw a card” on them are sweet in Limited too! The two tokens created by Carrion Call are more than just two two-drops in the making. They’re a combat trick a way of defeating attrition-based strategies and even a surprise kill when your opponent doesn’t realize they aren’t safe just because you have no creatures on the battlefield.

In fact Carrion Call and Blackcleave Goblin do a good job of setting eight poison counters as the point at which you’re no longer safe from being killed out of nowhere with a single non-rare.

As for Constructed there’s an awful lot of competition at the four-spot particularly among infect cards. Besides this neither meshes with Plague Stinger plus Vines of Vastwood nor Putrefax plus Assault Strobe nor mono-Skithiryx. As such this seems pretty low on the list of infect cards to use. If you’re at the point of Carrion Call maybe you should consider more support cards instead. Even Corpse Cur is a much better option if budget is a concern.

I’m not much one for “win-more”
copper horns and honestly I could take
or leave a lot of scouts. Now Girl Scouts on the other hand make some fantastic cookies. My personal preference is Peanut Butter Patties. The most I’ve ever purchased at once was sixty boxes (all Peanut Butter Patties) but these days I usually like to keep it to no more than 24 and only once a year. I mostly eat chickens and cows and pineapples so those rare times I indulge in actual cookies I like to eat a box at a time – usually a couple boxes a day. Once I have one cookie I like to have my fill you know? When you eat two pounds of chicken a day it can take more than a few Girl Scout cookies to satisfy you am I right?

This is a very reasonably sized body for an infect creature making Cystbearer a top common creature. In infect decks this is very much like a 4/3 for three which is pretty awesome for a common.

It’s nice that he has a little extra toughness helping ensure that he can brawl a fair bit and often end up living as 0/1. He may not be infecting anyone at that point but decks that use infect are often decks that can eventually enhance a creature’s power. I really can’t tell you yet where he falls in the pick order compared to removal spells but I’m guessing generally lower.

Cystbearer may not be a top choice in Constructed but he certainly isn’t out of the question. The greatest aspect of the cheap infect creatures is being somewhat like double strike so building around them seems to suggest +4/+4 is the right bonus to give with Groundswell Vines of Vastwood Primal Bellows and Adventuring Gear topping the list. Assault Strobe makes the Cystbearer‘s extra power mean little but it’s very reasonable to play without red. Once you’re at that point the extra power looks a bit more appealing as it means that two pump spells finish the job.

I’m not sure what the rules for what makes a budget deck or not are but I have to imagine that a few Putrefaxes aren’t the end of the world. The mana base obviously has a dozen rare lands but hopefully you have the fetchlands anyway.

If you want to get ultra-budget and cut the rare lands you can replace them with twelve basic Forests but then you have to replace the Adventuring Gears. Maybe try two Boar Umbras and two Groundswells? Alternatively maybe two Livewire Lashes and two Prey’s Vengeance? Still if you can manage the fetchlands and Oran-Riefs the Adventuring Gear version is probably better. Yes I considered Primal Bellows but you have to do a
lot
of work to make it better than Groundswell.

What is the future of a strategy such as this? Well every indication is that this is the new Vampires. Can it win? Definitely. Will it probably be resigned to Tier 2 status? Probably. Should you lowball it on account of its status as both a mono-green and a poison deck? Never.

It’s probably safe to go ahead and lowball this one however. Engulfing Wurm is certainly doing his part bringing both decent stats and a pretty board-impacting ability: opponent’s choice of lifelink plus The Abyss or unblockable on offense; moat on defense.

That said he has a large gulf to cross with Primeval Titan Wurmcoil Engine Rampaging Baloths and Avenger of Zendikar all competing for that space. All of those creatures win the game on their own if unchecked but they have something else in common; they provide inherent card advantage so that even if your opponent has answer you generally still get some good value for your mana. Engulfing Wurm is properly understood when compared to Pelakka Wurm. The Pelakka Wurm goes ahead and gives you the life up front. Then even if your opponent kills it you at least score an extra card. Even with all of this Pelakka Wurm is mostly a nice sideboard card for the life gain.

In Limited however this is one of those slow expensive bombs that can totally win games. I have a feeling that I’d rather have cheap removal than this guy though he’s pretty decent for a seven-drop. As a matter of fact I can imagine a world like Zendikar where I’d hope that my deck doesn’t have any sevens at all but we’ll see…

While it’s a lock to be a hit in the casual community (the word Elf appears in the text box already locking things up but on top of that he does fun things) I think Ezuri has actual chances at Standard. A player at the Jacksonville Arkansas Prerelease I attended made an excellent observation: he protects your squad from Day of Judgment if you want. While it’s a little expensive to do this it’s a very potent option to have considering these sorts of decks have a traditional weakness to the card.

Ezuri’s playability suffers a little from not Crusading your guys out of the gate but his Overrun ability hits really really hard. This makes him especially deadly with Elvish Archdruid. When you cast Ezuri with an Archdruid already on the table you’re assured of having enough mana to protect all your guys; then you’re assured of having a metric ton of mana next turn finishing the job (or perhaps you even have the mana to finish things immediately as Ezuri doesn’t mind getting busy with the quickness).

Final rating:
Fringe bordering on Niche Role Player. Will see some play; though a fair bit of his inclusion may be dubious at best and often the decks he inhabits aren’t the decks that I’d actually want to have as my baseline strategy.

In Limited Ezuri can pump himself so he’s a legitimate creature even without other Elves to pump; however even a single other Elf on the battlefield and we’re talking about excellent board presence. This is definitely the type of card that has me wanting to start his Archers (which conveniently come next alphabetically).

The downside is of course that Ezuri is very fragile keeping him from being a true bomb.

See this is an odd sort of card that just reeks of development.

What were they designed to do though? The last time we saw this card as Scattershot Archer it was clearly engineered to help give FNMers a few more tools to help against Faeries – with Bitterblossom Scion of Oona Spellstutter Sprite and Peppersmoke in mind. What is the purpose of these new Archers?

This collection of numbers may seem impressive for a one-drop but they’re very ineffectively located. At the end of the day a one-drop that only hits for one needs to do something else well.

Ezuri’s Archers can block and trade with medium-sized fliers? That’s just not a particularly useful ability in the abstract so I’d suggest only using them if there’s a very specific purpose you have in mind for them.

In general Plummet would be better in most realistic scenarios where you’d want this type of card and Plummet doesn’t exactly see a massive amount of play.

Ezuri’s Brigade certainly has the numbers to turn some heads but where are you supposed to use them? It should be pretty easy to achieve metalcraft in an aggro deck by turn 3 or 4 if you try.

What does it pay though? In this case you get an 8/8 trampler for four which is pretty awesome even by today’s standards. On top of that they’re still 4/4s for four when you don’t get there which is pretty respectable for “when things go wrong.” I think a home will materialize for Ezuri’s Brigade somewhere somehow as the numbers are just too good not to.

That said the biggest obstacle they have to overcome is competition at the infamous four spot on the curve. Lodestone Golem has such good synergy with metalcraft cards and cards like Vengevine and various walkers offer lots of other options for power. Still you could probably set these aside if you were really going to push the Brigade to the limit.

Most likely the best way to get enough bang for your buck with the Brigade as well as Carapace Forger and Auriok Edgewright is to push the equipment angle hard. Adventuring Gear is generally the best one for these decks but I imagine you’ll want a lot more. Stoneforge Mystic is generally going to be as good as an artifact for getting metalcraft by turn 4 which can help up your count without actually playing all equipment.

Ezuri’s Brigade actually has me wanting to play Strider Harness as a one-of at the very least though likely more. I’d normally default to the Sword of Vengeance but the creatures in this deck already hit hard. All we really want is haste and besides the Sword is only one extra point of power. Sword can be quite a bit better if all your guys cost one or two but a card like Ezuri’s Brigade would love to have haste the turn you summon it which is easy – especially when the Strider Harness you played on turn 3 is active thanks to Mox Opal. For instance:

T1- Land Adventuring Gear
T2- Land Carapace Forger
T3- Mox Opal Equip Carapace Forger with Gear Fetchland Strider Harness Attack for eight
T4- Fetchland Ezuri’s Brigade Equip with Harness Attack for seventeen

In Limited this guy is a total sicko. Before more your 4/4 for four ground floor that roars in times of war with hardcore rancor galore would score for sure like Thor of lore. Been made sore from torture the poor seor that swore he’d ignore the horror of the metalcraft savior will abhor what’s in store. Therefore such a route’d make an encore an eyesore bore for more snores than mentors that adore with amour is no way to restore the folklore before the gore.

Genesis Wave is a fun new card that rides a fine line between Mind Spring and Warp World though probably veers closer to the Warp World side. Costing only one mana more than Mind Spring it produces a lot of mana worth of action since every card is put onto the battlefield for free. If we were evaluating stock mana which we aren’t we’d point out that putting a land onto the battlefield is often worth two mana. However since by the time you cast this you probably wouldn’t pay two mana to do this we’re forced to return to reality where it’s just another super-expensive spell that tries to win the game for nine mana.

Can it work? Sure I mean even if you spend
just
seven mana you’ll often get a couple lands and maybe a Jace or an Oracle of Mul Daya if you’re lucky. On the whole though I think it’s probably too expensive for Constructed.

A number of people have suggested it as a new addition to Turbo Land. Here are some problems with this plan:

1) It’s wretched as a Rampant Growth variant for four.
2) Even at five even if you hit both it’d still be terrible.
3) At six you aspire to do a fraction of what Primeval Titan does.
4) At seven you’d have to have a lot go right to get a few cards none of which will compare to Avenger of Zendikar or Rampaging Baloths.
5) At eight you’re still not as good as an Avenger of Zendikar.
6) At nine you’re probably at the point of producing something along the lines of a Titan a Jace and three lands and that is if you’re lucky. That’s not very impressive for nine mana. Would you probably win from this position? Good chances but man nine mana is
so
much. People can do things like hard-cast Iona for nine mana. Is this that good? It even requires a little bit of running good and doesn’t mesh with cards like Mana Leak Negate other copies of Genesis Wave and so on.

Maybe there’s a different way to abuse the card as it certainly does have some hallmarks of abusability: converting mana into cards playing spells for free cheating land onto the battlefield etc. As such I think it’s currently squarely in the Warp World department; a curiosity that is unlikely to succeed but has chances to surprise for one weekend if enough interactions are found and stars align.

In Limited it’s super slow but it’s definitely a potential source of card advantage. Spending even seven mana will generally net only about three cards of which
maybe
two are business. You can make it work but there’s no shortage of good playable ways to spend a ton of mana and this one isn’t particularly exciting in the slightest.

I would try not to catch this wave.

This guy is a gimme for the casual crowd and the kids. First of all look at all those eights! Obviously what I need when I’m hitting my opponent with an 8/8 trampler for eight mana is
more
8/8s!

All jokes aside he kills two turns after you play him. That’s really really slow for an eight-drop that doesn’t have any inherent card advantage. The ability is the epitome of “Win More.” If you do want to use him find a game with 150-card decks.

In Limited he takes over a game in a big way so if you think you can reliably cast him go for it. I’d generally want slightly less ambitious plans but as far as eights go he’s certainly playable assuming you want that sort of thing.

The numbers aren’t too shabby on this guy but against most opponents the life gain won’t be super useful. Against the rest he’ll eat a Bolt.

I suppose you could build some sort of
Soul Sisters deck
to really take advantage of the life gain but what artifacts are you using? If you manage to build a deck that wants green weenies massive life gain and uses lots of artifacts Lifesmith has the numbers to be a consideration.

In Limited his body is passable and his ability is lackluster. Normally I’d appreciate such a card with the number of artifacts in this set but all the one-power creatures and -1/-1 counters combined with the infect theme leave me less interested in both halves. He’s still fine as a random dude just not an early pick.

Three toughness on a five-drop with no inherent defense or card advantage is a recipe for failure. Combined with an upside that isn’t even
that
good and you can color me unimpressed for Standard.

As for Limited I can speculate that because his numbers are so good and trample is so well used here that he’ll be solid but he certainly doesn’t seem anywhere near as good as removal. Also his lack of synergy with infect has me hesitant to pick him early.

As listed above I think Putrefax has a place in some Standard poison decks. He hits really hard and is the perfect answer to Day of Judgment. He’s vulnerable to Bolt sure but it’s not like they can hold a Bolt for him as you have lots of other infect creatures. Besides just Vines that stuff dude.

A stud for Limited poison decks of course but I doubt he’s a Tier 1 bomb or anything.

There’s a lot right with this card.

First of all thank goodness it’s an instant. Revoke Existence has a lot of nice applications with the cheaper cost and the exiling so it’s nice that this one gets both cantrip and instant speed to make things more interesting.

Next of all I’m glad that it costs double green. That obviously doesn’t make it stronger but the ascetic in me likes rewards for playing green besides Elf decks and counting Forests.

Slice in Twain has some Constructed applications but you have to be pretty sure that the value of an extra card is worth costing three mana more than Nature’s Claim (or two mana more for Naturalize if you want to avoid the four life situation).

Often artifacts and enchantments are the types of cards that you just want gone so getting greedy and trying to mise another card is mostly relegated to
Mental Magic. That said if there are just artifacts and enchantments left and right Slice starts to sound super nice almost a green Dismiss of sorts.

How many Ratchet Bombs Everflowing Chalices Tempered Steels and so on do we have to see before this kind of stuff is an option? Even Fauna Shaman decks are likely to increase their count to support Kuldotha Phoenix or Molten-Tail Masticore or Trinket Mage (not for sure though since you could still build a Naya list without them).

If not for Primeval Titan Ramp decks I’d be just about ready to start a few Disenchant variants. Which ones? I’m not sure yet. I still have to rationalize how to beat Primeval Titan decks while still adjusting for the new format that’s about to unfold. Historically speed and reliability have won out over ambitious added value but it’s still up for debate.

In Limited this card is better than Annihilate. First pick awesome removal spell.

I like this guy a lot in draft actually. High toughness is well placed on him as he can survive a lot of fights picking up value here and there. On defense he’s a pretty big deterrent to attackers without infect or evasion. On offense he can pick off random creatures like Myr or eat away at defenders. Additionally he can perform Lure duty and clear the way for an all-out infection. This guy is deceptively sweet and probably actually a pretty high pick that will be underrated at first.

The totally wrong type of card for Constructed however. Constructed formats won’t appreciate his toughness nor his Lure ability. As such he isn’t even among the top five cards you could play for four in your poison deck.

Someone needs to tell the Jilad to chill on the defiance. No one’s trying to force them to use any artifacts they don’t want to. Talk about protesting something just because you want to talk about it not because it’s actually a problem.

This trick protects creatures in Constructed from artifacts in much the same way I’d protect my girlfriend from wild bears. I would if it ever came up no question but it hasn’t yet and tomorrow isn’t looking any more likely. You may ask: what am I doing to protect her from wild bears at the moment? Never mind how I do it – look at the results! No bear has ever made it past my defenses!

In Limited it’s a reasonable trick requiring a little setup but fine. It may look like Shelter but it’s far from it. Protecting creatures from removal spells is
way
better than protecting creatures in combat.

This guy is an excellent example of just how interesting a Limited format Scars is. He hits so hard that you have to respect him as a threat especially if you have a way to give him evasion. Additionally protection from artifacts is a solid ability allowing him to occasionally be a defensive force despite his one-toughness.

However he’s more often an offensive threat. Without Myr and other such artifact creatures able to jump in front of him your opponent may be forced to make some blocks they don’t really want to. On the other hand he is somewhat fragile dying in every real fight he actually has to engage in – at least he’s immune to Perilous Myr Contagion Clasp Trigon of Contagion and so on.

Rating:
Good in a Limited poison deck but you can probably do better in Constructed. Since equipping is an ability that targets you can’t even equip him!

What an absolute total blowout! There aren’t a lot of Giant Growths in this set and with good reason. The interaction between infect and pump spells is extremely powerful and can end games in a hurry. The one Giant Growth in this set is the audacious Untamed Might that is the Blaze to Giant Growth‘s Lightning Bolt.

In this light it hardly seems impressive (and in Constructed it isn’t – I mean compared to Strength of the Tajuru) but in Scars it shines. First it can do Fireball duty finishing opponents off yet early is a fine combat trick. This alone would make it playable but it effectively deals double with infect creatures.

A surprise Untamed Might will end an awful lot of Limited games in this format. This has got to be a windmill slam first pick for infect decks.

I love value more than most as I’m sure you’re aware but when I want to punish my opponents for playing a lot of artifacts a card that lets me get a little extra value from each of my artifact destruction cards isn’t what I want. It’s hardly impressive as a sideboard card to
help
your Naturalizes and it’s far from a maindeck card. I suppose we could consider using it to hose a few narrow combo decks.

I could imagine a world where someone would play a lot of Spellbombs and other artifacts that they plan on having go to the graveyard. In this world I suppose you could rid and revel in a few extra cards while they do their thing. Still even this application seems unimpressive as it’s not actually stopping their combo.

No it seems any natural application is going to be horribly underpowered. What if we did something unfair with it? How about combining it with Liquimetal Coating? Get the combo going and you’ll never run out of fuel to destroy more and more permanents. Besides you’re probably playing a ton of artifact destruction anyway so getting value out of opponents with them will be no trouble.

This actually sounds pretty exciting with the big challenge being how to win games against non-artifact decks when you don’t draw Liquimetal Coating. Maybe more library manipulation to find it is the key. Maybe there’s some sort of substitute you can use as copies five through eight. I’m not sure but what I am sure of is that if I wanted to explore Viridian Revel this is where I’d start.

Seems a rather slow way to get card advantage in Limited but at least it takes no mana to operate. I apologize for not having a more useful answer but I’m definitely going to have to try this card to have a good grasp if it’s worth it. I imagine you can probably use a certain amount of this type of “stuff” but that it isn’t an early pick. Again there are no shortage of big things to do but it’s fast things that are at a premium.

This isn’t a reliable way to save one mana! Plummet hasn’t actually demonstrated a universal acceptance in Standard and this situational Plummet both requires a big enough creature already on the battlefield and it not dying in response. No one wants to save a mana
that
badly.

In Limited it’s fine if a little underpowered. It’s very economical which I really appreciate in this format plus it combines well with infect. It didn’t really look like a very good maindeck card from what I’ve seen so far but it’s also not embarrassing. Plus it’s a nice combo with Flight Spellbomb.

So this is basically just a color-shifted Death Ward; though it avoids the word “regeneration” (for things like Incinerate and Damnation) and doesn’t tap the creature. Obviously not a chance in Constructed but in Limited it might have the possibility of vying for the Shieldmate’s Blessing niche of underpowered combat trick that can provide much needed tempo.

Still as if it wasn’t bad enough that it’s just a green Death Ward it also interacts poorly with infect in this set making it even less appealing as
a trick. This is definitely going to be for the
filth-mongers
only.

White

It takes a lot for damage prevention to be good enough in Constructed. This one isn’t close. I wouldn’t go near him for one mana let alone two.

As for Limited I’m personally super happy to see a healer again. There used to be a long and proud line of healers ranging from Samite Healer (not so impressive) to Sanctum Custodian (very nice). There’s been a push in recent years to have more of the tricks be in hand rather than on board. One of the unfortunate casualties of this has been the healers.

Now after being without for so long the return is interesting and fun. Add to that the interaction between damage prevention and infect and the plot thickens. While life gain is irrelevant almost a third of the time because of infect damage prevention is strong. Preventing damage from an infect creature is sort of preventing double damage to yourself or giving +1/+1 counters to a creature. Very cool! Abuna Acolyte isn’t the most durable kitty in the litter but she puts in work.

While Arrest is pretty far from where I’d want to be in Standard in this day and age it has seen play before and is at least worth considering particularly for hosing legends. You may not want Condemn but Journey to Nowhere is significantly better than Arrest. What I want to see is the return of Faith’s Fetters! That card would be
so
good these days (especially at hosing planeswalkers).

In Limited this is excellent removal if somewhat slightly more vulnerable than you might imagine on account of the all the maindeck Disenchants in everyone’s decks.

The promise of four damage a turn out of a two-drop is very appealing in Constructed. This is further amplified by the interaction between double strike and the equipment that you’re surely using to give him metalcraft in the first place.

Turn 1 Plains Adventuring Gear
Turn 2 Plains Adventuring Gear Mox Opal Auriok Edgewright
Turn 3 Equip with both Play a fetchland That’s game boys!

As far as Magical Christmas Land scenarios go that one is hardly very far-fetched and all of the cards are good on their own. If you’ve been following my set review from the beginning you’ve surely noticed a trend:

There are a lot of unfair fast starts possible.

This makes it especially important to have a lot of cheap interactive cards. Lightning Bolts seems so good right now as does Into the Roil. Even Nature’s Claim looks interesting. Pyroclasm and Ratchet Bomb are so key against these unfair starts.

The Edgewright is slightly awkward for some decks to cast but he’s well worth it. Even straight-up bears are fine in this world (as that second point of toughness is clutch) but since metalcraft isn’t difficult to achieve he becomes an incredible powerhouse.

The first strike element is particularly nice against infect plus the doubling makes the equipment you want to play anyway become that much better. This card is exactly where you want to be and I can actually see picking it over removal in dedicated metalcraft aggro.

While nowhere near as potent as the Edgewright the Sunchaser is an excellent addition to metalcraft Draft strategies. Do your part and draft lots of equipment Myr Spellbombs and so on and she’ll pay you with excellent aggression.

While an Edgewright is a Bear at worst which isn’t embarrassing the Sunchaser isn’t even a Squire and as such is. Additionally even when powered up you’re doing too much work just to build a three-power beater for two mana. She’d be fine; it’s just that there are tons of awesome options at the two spot now. Why settle?

A nice Limited removal spell but probably not quite as good as it looks.

First of all only hitting attackers sucks against creatures with great abilities as well as in aggressive strategies that want to clear away blockers.

Second of all amateurs will surely be more prone to walk into fully metalcrafted Justice but stronger players will always have this card in mind and will play around it whenever possible. The corollary to this is to be mindful of Dispense Justice and play around it if possible.

When you’re the one with it you must be masterful at hiding the fact that you’re even in a position to cast a spell during your opponent’s attack step. If they’re greedy for even a moment and don’t play around it… Dispense Justice!

As for Constructed Dispense Justice is worth considering most notably as a solution to untargetable creatures and creatures with protection. You generally won’t want it unless you have realistic chances of achieving metalcraft but it’s still fine when you don’t yet have it. It’s a little slow and doesn’t work as well at protecting planeswalkers like Jace and Venser (where you often have exactly one mana left open for Condemn) but it has its niches.

Finally we come to Elspeth Tirel one of the most hyped cards in the set. With a name like Elspeth could we expect any less? I used to have Elspeth above Venser but I’ve kind of evolved my picture of what I think the metagame is going to look like.

Is Elspeth awesome? Yeah for sure in my top ten cards in the set – let’s just be clear about that. There are no bad planeswalkers in Scars of Mirrodin. That said she costs five not four so the bar is very high. I’m not saying she should cost four – just that we are spoiled and have high standards.

Comparing her to her old self is just not fair. Elspeth at four was kind of absurd. She was so hard to kill and often served as a 4/4 flying indestructible creature with haste. Elspeth Tirel is much more defensive whereas “little” Elspeth was meant to attack. What does the five-cost version amount to aside from a busted mythic that will dominate games of Limited?

To start with her +2 ability is not insignificant but not exactly the stuff dreams are made of. When you’re using her +2 you’re generally doing it for the loyalty.

Next her -2 that makes three Soldiers is certainly strong. When you first pull the counters off it’s a bit like a Cloudgoat Ranger where you have one good permanent exerting a pretty big influence on the board plus three tokens. (Arguments like “I’ll just Bolt it” don’t apply.) Additionally you can just activate Tirel twice to make six tokens over the course of two turns which is still decent as just one option.

These two abilities work excellently together letting you make three tokens every other turn while gaining a lot of life or just making an army sacrificing your first Elspeth then dropping a second copy gaining a bunch of life then going ultimate next turn (keeping your tokens and Elspeth).

Elspeth Tirel‘s ultimate has an even stronger effect than that of the recently rotated Planar Cleansing as it’s often one-sided. This ability is especially useful for helping battle other planeswalkers and is just a very powerful option to have. Many other great walkers can’t actually take her in a fight – like Garruk Nissa Gideon Venser or either Jace.

It’s interesting to see a planeswalker whose ultimate is arguably her best move despite not actually coming close to winning the game outright while still having another great ability.

On power she’s a great card and worthy of being the second best Elspeth but she has her work cut out for her in Standard with Gideon Baneslayer and Venser just to name a few.

You can only play so many fives! With so many good fives and sixes seeing print I wonder if it’s time for a true Tap-Out Blue (or in this case U/W) in the vein of so many of Michael Flores’ old Keiga + Meloku decks. Why bother controlling the game when you can just do something better every turn? Of course the burden of proof is definitely on you – to prove what you’re doing is actually better than a Primeval Titan…

Can you believe that Fulgent means “dazzling with bright flashes?” I gotta be honest when I saw this card the first thing that popped into my mind was “More like Pungent Distraction.”

Wouldn’t play it as a cantrip in Constructed.

In Limited it’s very unlikely to be a good enough trick and honestly you could do a
lot
better but it’s not unplayable. In fact how horrible it is works to its advantage because no one will ever play around it the first time.

Another fine Limited card to help pay you enough to go after metalcraft. The 2/4 body is actually pretty sweet in the format anyway and when you get the bonus it’s just gravy. Not as good as removal but one of the better creatures for the deck.

One of the reasons I think this format is sweet is that it heavily rewards drafting decks not just cards – but unlike Lorwyn you don’t have a situation where most of the cards are unplayable outside of their archetypes. You may not love a Pillarfield Ox but it isn’t awful. Reading signals is going to be so important in this format as is discipline.

This guy would be great in Standard at two but bad at three. Four continues to not be the halfway point between those two.

Pros:

• Versatile

• Nice stats for a 187 creature

• Fun

• Synergizes well in a Venser deck

• Surprisingly offensive and great at keeping walkers off of ultimates

• Great against Everflowing Chalice and Ratchet Bomb

Cons:

• You can do some
  really
  good things for four mana. Elking is hardly near the top; though admittedly those things are all non-white.

• He does a lot of things but are any of them things that need to get done?

I don’t know where you’re going to want to use him but I think he’s a role player that should be in every clever deckbuilder’s toolbox to consider as a potential solution to problems that may arise in the format. Just blinking your own cantrip guys like Sea Gate Oracle and Wall of Omens is already a respectable amount of value (3/3 vigilance + draw a card for four is not bad). So it’s possible that he’s just worth it on his own merits. He can function as a makeshift mana source allowing you to play a Jace on turn 5 and still have Negate or Mana Leak mana up.

This is a card like Momentary Blink in that people will be so behind in technology then it’ll suddenly erupt and be all the rage once the right mix is found for it. I’m just saying: don’t sleep on this guy. I think he’ll turn out quite good.

As for Limited I’d be interested in a 3/3 Vigilance for four (though not excited) and the ability is great for resetting -1/-1 counters charging artifacts back up removing blockers untapping potential defenders removing auras and more.

A very nice creature that gives you a lot of options.

Geordie Tate may be wondering what to do with this guy when you’re all alone and have no good combos to use with it. Well study the board professionally and critically. Find a play! Not to put too glimmering of a point on it but I have a PhD in going stag.

Glint Hawk is an exciting new tool for aggro decks to help reward them for using cards like Memnite Ornithopter and Mox Opal. Go to the trouble of having any of these and you’re already paid off with a better flying Isamaru. Even if you have to “settle” for bouncing an Adventuring Gear he isn’t awful. Still with a little planning you can make Glint Hawk “Dangerous with a capital D.”

The D-Bird is especially effective at increasing triggers:

• He adds two counters to Quest for the Holy Relic which combined with a Memnite makes it easy to trigger turn 3 possibly even sooner.

• Resets charge counters on cards like Necrogen Censer.

• Retriggers “enters the battlefield” abilities like Precursor Golem and Pilgrim’s Eye.

• Resets -1/-1 counters particularly in Limited if you have a medium-sized artifact creature that rumbled with a cheap guy with infect.

• Untaps a blocker which won’t matter much but is a reasonable option to consider.

• On top of all of this he’s just really aggressive. Flying is at a premium these days and a lot of the openings that use Glint Hawk put so much pressure on your opponent that they may not be able to get their deck going before dying.

His primary Constructed drawbacks include:

• Not an artifact for metalcraft Steel Overseer and Tempered Steel.

• Requires you to build your deck for it which is a very non-zero cost.

• Has the potential to get blown out for instance if your only artifact is a Memnite and you want to play Glint Hawk turn 1. You have to be eyeing your opponent’s turn 1 Scalding Tarn with at least a little apprehension.

• Most of his good lines get blown out by Pyroclasm and Ratchet Bomb. Boy sure seems like that keeps coming up…

Rating:
An archetypal staple and of quality but not devastatingly powerful. Definitely worth working with; though I kind of imagine I want to be the guy that beats this guy.

In Limited Glint Hawk is sweet. He’s often “only” a Wild Griffin (with Myr) but fliers are much appreciated as is the second point of toughness. He randomly creates lots of combos and is very aggressive. A great card for a ton of decks.

A lot of people were skeptical whether Indomitable Archangel would see play when I previewed it
here.


Now that we’ve seen the rest of the set we see that there are in fact a variety of nice ways to really take advantage of her abilities and that synergize with her fine as hell body (metaphorically).

Liquimetal Coating is one option as it basically serves as a two-cost artifact that can tap to make target permanent untargetable. (Yes it can’t target your artifacts to give them shroud but that’s fine because they’re already artifacts with shroud…)

Another option is to follow her up on your curve with Precursor Golem. These two cards work together deceptively well. They both provide big numbers while the Golem’s ability automatically makes the Angel protect him from his drawback. Even with no other artifacts I expect this combo to see play.

Another option is to use her in Affinity-style decks. She can rumble with the best of them with that flying ability we love so much while simultaneously mitigating your opponent’s anti-artifact hate.

Besides how good of an ability do you need on a 4/4 flier for four? Yes you need something but she’s always pretty decent and when you get paid extra from her it can be game-winning.

While she’s merely a role player in Standard she’s clearly a first pick bomb in Limited and better than removal. She can be answered by a lot of the common removal spells though so she isn’t quite in the same league as Molten-Tail Masticore Wurmcoil Engine and so on.

Kemba is probably at her best in some aggressive metalcraft Stoneforge Mystic deck with DI (a lot of) equipment. To reliably trigger metalcraft you’ll want a lot and she’s a reasonable way to get a little extra value out of them especially with her halfway-decent rear end.

While her numbers are good she’s held back by the lack of a need for this sort of tool. It’s nice to add a new dimension to your deck but a lot of these metalcraft decks seem like they want to just beatdown really hard not sit around and try to value the opponent out. As a result I think she’s probably fringe in Standard but solid role player in Block.

In Limited her body alone would be good enough. Add to this an excellent way to build an advantage that synergizes with what you want to be doing anyway and you have a winner. I’d probably want to be able to count on at least three pieces of equipment to draft her over a removal spell but that isn’t actually that hard to do.

Kemba’s Skyguard is
so
close to playable but alas probably a little short. The life he gives isn’t enough to justify him against even a burn deck so we’re left looking at the flying ability. While flying is in demand right now this card isn’t even as powerful as Skyknight Legionnaire (damage to the opponent is generally worth a bit more than life gain) a card that didn’t even see that much play. We’ve crept pretty far on the power curve so I think it is unlikely that the Skyguard will make the grade. However he does do something we want (even if somewhat inefficiently) so he’s worth keeping in mind.

As for Limited I’d be all about a Wild Griffin in this set and the life gain it provides may be a little less valuable than in other worlds but that’s such a minor element of the card that I don’t mind. Besides if you have enough Plains it’s mostly a better Wild Griffin.

One of the best and certainly one of the most influential cards in the set Leonin Arbiter is much more than just an Eternal hoser. Still let’s start there.

In Legacy Leonin Arbiter totally throws a curveball at the format absolutely destroying a variety of strategies unless they find ways to adapt.

For instance the Survival deck I played at Grand Prix Columbus has eleven fetchlands four Survivals of the Fittest and four Fauna Shamans. That’s over half my mana base (making it very hard to pay the two) and all of my best cards. My deck wouldn’t even function without them. I only played one card in my sixty that could kill an Arbiter and with an Arbiter on the battlefield it would be excruciatingly difficult to find it. Yes I realize Aven Mindcensor was already around and it wasn’t embarrassing at three but I’d argue this is a stronger effect for less mana.

Tunnel Ignus has a bit of overlap with Leonin Arbiter in terms of purpose but preventing your opponent from doing something unless they pay is generally better than just making them take three damage for doing it. Mana is much better than life most of the time (which is an awkward sentence out of context).

Outside of disrupting Survival decks the Arbiter actually naturally disrupts Natural Order Tutors Imperial Recruiter Trinket Mage Entomb and nearly everyone’s mana base. This card will change the way people build their decks.

Moving to Vintage we see similar effects perhaps hosing more but caring more about the symmetry. (He effects you as well.) Additionally there are some really powerful things going on in Vintage so the bar is absurdly high.

Besides you can sometimes just get beat by having the wrong hate card such as when they have enough non-fetchlands and are on Ancestral Time Vault Necro Jace Oath or any of the Stax cards as their first major play. He might not have as big of an impact here but he’ll have some particularly in some sort of U/W or Bant Aggro deck.

On an unrelated note doesn’t Vintage seem super-sweet right now? Jace the Mind Sculptor helps restore the fun that was lost with the restriction of Brainstorm. Creatures are popular; there are a variety of decks; people usually live a few turns; people are using interactive cards; Frantic Search and Gush add an interesting twist to help fight Mana Drain decks; and there are a lot of exciting new cards to try. Good times!

Also to my friends that roll deep with Mishra in his Workshop let me be the first to say that I am with you 100% on Stax benefiting from the recent changes. Gush‘s unrestriction will go a very long way towards punishing the oppressive Jace decks that made life so tough for Stax once they adapted and started using Nature’s Claims and Trygon Predators.

Workshop decks are a natural predator of Gush decks easily exploiting their need to cast so many spells every turn with Spheres and Lodestone Golems. Additionally Stax cares very little about Leonin Arbiter and welcomes a new addition to the format that will hurt Stax’s enemies while being terrible against it. Your enemy’s enemy is your friend.

Olive branch? I can’t promise I won’t Jace but tell Mishra I’d do business with him at this point if he’s interested.

When it comes to Standard Leonin Arbiter is a surprisingly effective hoser against Ramp decks which I think are very much Tier 1 and sure to be quite popular at the 2010’s coming up.

Tunnel Ignus may deal a lot of damage but Leonin Arbiter will grind the ramping to a halt. Additionally he’s a monster against Lotus Cobra decks and Adventuring Gear decks alike while providing little edges here and there (against Pilgrim’s Eye Stoneforge Mystic etc).

I fully expect Leonin Arbiter to be massively adopted as a sideboard card see some maindeck play and most importantly help shape the texture of the format. It’s yet another reason to play cards like Lightning Bolt Pyroclasm and Ratchet Bomb and provides a huge hidden cost to people that try to exploit fetchlands “because there’s no reason not to.”

I’m not sure what the new Extended format will look like after the rotation but for now Punishing Fire nearly insures that the Arbiter is at most a sideboard card. After the Rotation maybe he’ll step it up but that will be a function of what all decks people are playing obviously. He’s definitely an important one to keep in mind at all times like Ethersworn Canonist.

In Limited he’s a Glory Seeker which is actually kind of nice.

Horned Turtle and River Kaijin have each seen tournament success but these are different days with a higher standard for creatures. I wouldn’t say it’s out of the question to use Loxodon Wayfarer but it’s pretty unlikely you’ll want to. Grizzled Leotau barely saw fringe play at less.

In Limited I definitely appreciate the rear end and the numbers are okay but he’s definitely the type of card that could be great in one deck (control) and bad in another (aggro). Additionally he’s not as good against infect as I’d like as he’s reduced to Kraken Hatchling duty after a single fight with the tiniest of Phyrexians.

A two-power creature that pushes your linearity is definitely going to be worth considering but I’m not sure this is the best thing a deck that would use her could do. In her favor:

• Helps ensure you have metalcraft.

• Her tokens are relatively inexpensive and are artifact creatures benefiting from Steel Overseer and Tempered Steel.

• Helps you use your mana more efficiently as well as providing extra value from your zero-drops.

• Combos respectably with Glint Hawk and Kor Skyfisher.

This is certainly a fair number number of positive interactions so I definitely recommend experimenting with her but her raw power is nothing special so make sure you’re getting paid enough from the synergies to be worth it.

In Limited she’s great. I love cheap efficient creatures and while she isn’t good at fighting other monsters she does produce a bunch of friends quickly and on the cheap. Even if you just
know
that your opponent has a removal spell you can play her turn 4 then drop a Spellbomb and at least get one free dude. This is a great way to get paid in a metalcraft deck and should be a high priority. Even if you have a chance at a powerful expensive card those are a dime a dozen and top-shelf cheap cards are the real business.

This is a pretty sweet card that will probably fly under a lot of radars on account of the fierce competition at this spot on the curve. That said she actually does have good chances on account of aspiring to be the opposite of a Baneslayer. Whereas Baneslayer takes over games if unanswered the Hippogriff just sort of assumes your opponent can answer it but that’s okay. You get a one-shot life boost out the gate instead of aspiring to gain it every turn. Additionally she may not have a body like Baneslayer but being the sugar momma she is she generally shows up with a present.

Some initial possibilities include:

• Ratchet Bomb

• Molten-Tail Masticore

• Perilous Myr

• Spellbombs

• Pilgrim’s Eye

• Wurmcoil Engine

• Mindslaver

• Lodestone Golem

• Myr Battlesphere

In addition to getting multiple forms of good value in the face of removal she combos well with Venser the Sojourner which is worth considering. Her power level is nowhere near Prom Queen Baneslayer’s but she’s a good card and well worth considering. She doesn’t try to be a Baneslayer to her credit so there will be places for her to thrive.

In Limited a 3/3 flier for five is a fine card and you can usually count on her for even more value. Not quite a broken bomb but I’d be happy to first-pick her in a lot of situations.

It seems that the only people not quick to cut down Revoke Existence are the many that mistakenly played it as an instant at the Prerelease. Still I think it’s silly to get so hung up on the instant aspect. Naturalize already exists but there was no good Plow for artifacts. I’d much rather have a new kind of option than merely the same old option even if it is back in a color that hasn’t had it recently.

Wurmcoil Engine indestructibility Molten-Tail Masticore and recursion help ensure that the exile ability isn’t for naught. I can imagine a lot of worlds where you’d want this instead of straight-up Disenchant and will be keeping it in mind all year.

Is it time to maindeck this card? Probably not yet with so much Ramp and Mono-Red but it isn’t out of the question. It’s definitely a sweet sideboard card. It’s also very possible that not being an instant will end up mattering too much particularly with Argentum Armor. Overall probably not as good as Nature’s Claim most of the time but it’s better at solving some problems and probably better than splashing green if you want that sort of effect and aren’t already green.

In Limited the card is a great removal spell. It kills lots of creatures including the Perilous Myr but also deals with lots of difficult problems like equipment Trigons and strange cards like Furnace Celebration. Like all good removal I’d generally draft this over most good creatures.

Rootwater Diver saw a little bit of play and not needing to tap is actually pretty sweet. How often will you “live the dream” and block then get back Pilgrim’s Eye or Ratchet Bomb? I’m not sure but I do imagine that – at the very least – it’s going to see play in a new breed of Big Mana White that uses Emeria the Sky Ruin.

You need eleven mana to go off full blown but Contagion Clasp with Everflowing Chalice can help provide the three additional colorless you need beyond the seven Plains and Emeria. Besides even if you don’t go off the whole way you can still cast Mindslaver every turn until it sticks then use it the next turn. Even getting Slavered every other turn is unlikely to be beaten.

In Limited I like that it’s cheap and that 1/1s have added value in this format. I also like being able to reuse artifacts that I’ve sacrificed in some sort of a R/W deck or even just Spellbombs and Replicas. I don’t like that it’s just a 1/1 for one meaning you’re a little behind out of the gate on the card. That said I imagine it’ll turn out to be decent role player in certain aggro strategies particularly metalcraft decks that need to blow their Spellbombs early to hit their drops but want to cash in some chips to achieve metalcraft in the mid-game.

While I wouldn’t play this in Constructed as a cantrip it does have a place as a little trick to help an aggro deck punch through as the game starts to slow down in the beginning of the mid-game. It combines very well with infect as the first strike ensures that the other creature deals much less damage – not to mention pumps are basically worth double to infect creatures. Seize the Initiative is also effective against infect as it generally assures that your creature won’t just win – they won’t suffer any scars as a result. You aren’t going to want to draft this card very highly but it’s very nice that you can count on picking it up late and getting a little more of that extraordinarily desirable tempo.

I think you’d have to be pretty desperate for Fogs to play this in Constructed but it’s a fine Limited trick. Often you might only make one of your guys win in a fight (and without having to incur any scars) but usually you’ll at least get a few points of life extra out of the deal not to mention the possibility of setting up a beautiful two-for-one. It takes some work to make it good as opposed to merely playable but it’s certainly a fine option if you plan on engaging in creature combat though remember to use it with Bears and X/1s not Walls and 1/4s.

She’s a pretty amazing card to exist as her influence is felt even in games she isn’t a part of. If you don’t know whether your opponent has it it can be very daunting at times trying to figure out if you can even play around it if they do. When she kills even one creature she will generally look solid but when you can blow them out she gets crazy good.

Popular methods include Gideon Sleep opponents’ having to attack your walkers and general foolishness on the part of opponents. For extra good times combine her with Venser the Sojourner Jace the Mind Sculptor or Glimmerpoint Stag.

She’s pretty sweet but there are so many insanely good options for heavy white and white-affiliated decks that she’s probably most commonly a miser’s one-of. This makes it really hard to play around while still giving you chances to blow people out which are more common as a result of the four Preordains you’re playing -assuming you’re playing blue and aren’t a crazy person.

A first pick bomb rare in Limited. A flying 4/5 for six would be sweet anyway and this one happens to have a built in one-sided Wrath of God. Easily one of the best cards in the format and the kind of card that I’d switch into white for unless I had a really sweet two-color non-white aggro deck.

I almost wish we had Glory Seeker in this spot instead as it’d be interesting to see how good a straight-up Glory Seeker is in this world of 1/1 infect creatures. As it is it will be harder to get a hold of as many in Draft but that’s fine since there are no shortage of other playable two-drops. It’s definitely nice that she’s a decent scrapper on her own but gets paid extra for that equipment that your metalcraft deck probably wants to play anyway.

Lifelink is somewhat worse in this world but first strike is better so it’s all good. The abilities aren’t particularly important so don’t confuse it as anything other than a role player but it’s solid at being that.

As far as Constructed goes you could do a lot better than building a Knight of Meadowgrain. A
lot
better.

Tempered Steel is very underrated and in my opinion in the top fifteen cards in the set. It is the best “double Crusade” ever printed and a big part of the reason why I think that new White Affinity decks are going to be real.

This card basically assures that every Steel Overseer deck will be white but a second color is very reasonable. Blue is the logical first choice with a variety of synergies with artifacts including Trinket Mage (triggers Quest for the Holy Relic twice and gets a Memnite to receive a Tempered Steel bonus) as well as Jace the Mind Sculptor permission and lots of new dimensions. Red and black are unlikely on account of the difficulty of splashing enemy colors in a deck like this and all of the green incentives involve non-artifact creatures. In fact the tension is often the decision between whether to play green or Tempered Steel.

This card will be the flagship of at least one major new deck and isn’t just a gimmick.

In Limited the card is absolutely bonkers if you have the right deck for it. If you manage to get it early it is not hard to sort of steer your deck in a direction that will make excellent use of the card. In general as long as you have at least one artifact creature on the table you’re doing alright with it and if you ever have two it gets out of hand quickly.

This card has some excited as it is even more over the top than Finest Hour but I am skeptical of a six-mana Crusade variant. It is definitely worth trying as it is certainly the best at doing the things that it does but I think the odds are this is not going to turn out to be what most people want.

That said a spot could open up for it in some sort of white midrange deck that is trying to race someone that has creatures that attack on a different plane than yours (one of you has fliers and the other doesn’t for instance). If such a spot does open up it will be hard to beat this card when you pull it off without having some sort of removal for it. Then again I kind of think Nature’s Claim and Into the Roil are on the rise anyway so take that for what it’s worth.

In Limited six may be a lot but it immediately takes over a game (and with
haste!
). I am going to have to try it myself but I imagine I will be very happy to put this in most of my white decks.

To give an idea about how far this is from Constructed playability let’s put it this way:

You pay four mana for a permanent that then gives you the option to buy Stream of Life when a creature you control goes to the graveyard from the battlefield? In other words it is sort of a Jace except that you never draw anything except horrible life gain that is difficult to use requires mana left open and doesn’t impact the board in anyway.

That said it is open-ended so there could always be some way to abuse it. A lot of Magic cards that are stone-cold terrible become awesome quickly with the right combination of cards so I would certainly consider it in the right world.

The odds that this is that world? Minimum 99 to 1 against.

In Limited it is slow expensive doesn’t meaningfully impact the board and only gains life which is of less value in the world of Scars.

While it wouldn’t be out of the question as a tool against certain strategies such as Red Rest for the Weary exists and is almost twice as good as this card yet sees little play. Maybe there is some new Turbo Life Gain deck with Serra Ascendant or maybe Felidar Sovereign that would want to use this as a bad Rest for the Weary. I doubt it though – the card is pretty bad.

In Limited the card is even worse.

That’s it for today. See you tomorrow for the exciting conclusion Black and Blue!

Patrick Chapin
“The Innovator”