Time to look at the top dozen cards rotating in. As I said before, 8th edition looks like an awesome set. There are a large number of quality cards returning from 7^th edition, along with a bunch of nice new reprints that, for the most part, replace chaff. Obviously, we want to look at the new reprints; with all the quality cards coming back in 8^th Edition, it's tough to pick out a dozen - so I am going to liberally cheat by lumping a bunch of cards together.

Hammer of Bogardan
At various times when it has been legal in Standard, Hammer of Bogardan has seen anything from very little play to a great deal of play. In the past, Hammer of Bogardan had been a key card in CounterHammer and Ponza decks. Because there is a general weakening of countermagic and a poor selection of cross-color mana production options available, CounterHammer probably is not going to happen this time around. By the same token, the weakening of land destruction probably rules out a return of control red.

But even without a deck waiting for it, Hammer of Bogardan is a great reprint and will almost certainly be played; reusable burn is always going to be good. The slower the environment becomes, the better Hammer of Bogardan will look. The steep"buyback" cost of Hammer of Bogardan will keep it from being abusive.

Story Circle
Usable as maindecked Circles of Protection, Story Circle will see play. Given that they have no enchantment removal, Story Circle is hard for red and black to deal with. While the card scares me - I'm a red mage at heart - the double-white in the casting cost, coupled with the fact that it can not be activated with colorless mana, do make it harder to splash than the Circles.

Nekrataal/Ravenous Rats
Once again basing my best guess on past play, both of these 187 creatures should see use. In Black, with a little graveyard recursion? They're just that much better. Dare I put Maggot Carriers in here with Nekrataal and Ravenous Rats? I am a little disappointed to see that more 187 creatures, like Uktabi Orangutans, didn't make it into 8^th Edition.

Savannah Lions
Certainly a card that we can expect to see play - two power for one mana is playable in any color! But here is the bad news: This card alone will not revive white weenie. When it is all said and done, Savannah Lions is just another one-toughness dork.

Because the lack of quality dorks is not what has kept white weenie back; it is the lack of cheap targeted creature removal. Cards like Wing Shards and Chastise cost three and four mana respectively, and require the target creatures to be attacking. Vengeance is a four-mana sorcery and requires that the target creature be tapped. Right now, Pacifism looks like the best choice for WW removal.

Until white weenie can deal with blockers without Wrath of Godding away its own dorks, it will likely remain a Tier 2 deck. I'm not looking for a reprint of Swords to Plowshares, but I do think that Humble would have made a much stronger reprint then Chastise or Vengeance.

I am a little disappointed that the Portal card Jungle Lions didn't get into 8^th Edition. A similar red or black card like Jackal Pups or Carnophage would have perhaps been too much. I don't think that Jungle Lion would have been too much and it would have made Stompy fans happy (even in Type I). But then again, Stompy isn't the deck that Wizards is trying to help - that's white weenie.

Bribery
Well, here's a bone for the battered blue mage. Bribery is certainly a playable card. Search your opponent's deck for his or her best creature, put it into play on your team, and then smash your opponent with his or her own card. What's not to like?

Viashino Sandstalker
I never played Viashino Sandstalker back in the day; I always thought it was too slow (though a lot of folks did play it because of Oath of Druids). These days, Viashino Sandstalker may not be too slow. Viashino Sandstalker definitely has some things going for it in that it ignores sorcery-based removal like Wrath of God and Vicious Hunger. It won't be around for enchantments like Lingering Death and Pacifism. Viashino Sandstalker also dances around your own mass removal, like Pyroclasm and Starstorm.

A comparison to Blistering Firecat is inevitable; it may be an apples to oranges comparison, as Viashino Sandstalker does not have trample and it's smaller, but it has the chance to come back the next turn.

Viashino Sandstalker is nice reprint. I know people will try to use the Sandstalker, so it makes the list, barely beating out Royal Assassin. Royal Assassin is a great reprint. I just think it's too fragile, too slow, and too situational to beat out Viashino Sandstalker.

Blinding Angel
Blinding Angel has the potential to change the game like few other cards in 8^th Edition. I mean, Blinding Angel can potentially just shut down any number of decks that rely on creatures to win the game. At the same time, Blinding Angel itself is a win condition.

Blinding Angel and Exalted Angel will make for an angelic dynamic duo - and they are frighteningly similar in function. Both are win conditions that can also give you a chance to stop your opponent from winning by either eliminating his attack phase or gaining you life.

At five mana, I would certainly buy into any argument that states that Blinding Angel will be too slow coming out and to hard to protect. White or Blue/White control decks may or may not be able to stall long enough to find Blinding Angel and get it into play. These same decks may or may not be able to protect the Blinding Angel. Only time will tell. On potential alone, I rank Blinding Angel number one.

The Black Enchantments
Okay, here is where I'm going to start cheating: I'm putting four cards under one listing!

Phyrexian Arena really is a fixed Necropotence; what made both Necropotence and Yawgmoth's Bargain broken was that you could draw a bunch of cards all at once. You can't do that with Phyrexian Arena. You also don't get a choice, since you can't skip drawing the extra card to avoid losing one life every turn. Will Phyrexian Arena find a home? I don't know, but I like the card's potential.

Grave Pact's casting cost may prevent from being a top tournament card. It certainly is a powerful card, especially when one considers how it combos with Nantuko Husk, Fallen Angel or Phyrexian Plaguelord (which is also returning in 8^th Edition). Black also has an easier time getting creature cards back out of the graveyard.

Underworld Dreams and Warped Devotion can probably be considered together. Both are clearly potential combo cards: Underworld dreams with Teferi's Puzzle Box. Warped Devotion with Megrim. Both combos would want to make use of Blue for bounce effects. Warped Devotion is probably the stronger of the two because it has a function even without Megrim in play. (And hundreds of people tried to break both cards, and none did - I'm skeptical, but you never know - The Ferrett)

Ambition's Cost
Had to look it up, didn't you? Don't worry - so did most everyone else. I don't even know anyone who owns any Portal: Three Kingdoms cards! I have to think that this could be an impact card. Three cards for one is about as good as it gets! Even as a"four mana, lose three life" sorcery it looks good. With only one colored mana symbol in the casting cost Ambition's Cost is very splashable.

So why isn't Concentrate on the list? With an overall weakening in blue's card drawing maybe it should be. The difference is that Concentrate is blue. Generally, blue doesn't want to want to tap out during its own turn to draw cards - but Black doesn't care! There is still some playable instant speed draw available to blue. In Blue I'd be more inclined to play Catalog or Inspiration, just because they are instants.

Fecundity
Hard to say what role this card will have. I'm sure that the intent was to give green a way to fight creature removal, especially sweepers like Wrath of God. Perhaps Fecundity will do that, but I think that the more likely role for this card is in some combo deck. I remember some ugly combos using this card... But most of the other components, like Ashnod's Altar, won't be available. Keep in mind that token creatures go to the graveyard (triggering Fecundity) before they cease to exist as a state-based effect, and green has some token decent token makers.

The Color Hosers
Are the color hosers as brutal as some folks have said they are? Lets look at them. Below is a fairly complete list of the color hosers in 8^th Edition.

Circle of Protections (white color hosers for X)
Ivory Mask (white color hoser for black and red)
Karma (white color hoser for black)
Sacred Ground (white color hoser for red)
Sanctimony (white color hoser for red)
Story Circle (universal white color hoser)

Hibernation (blue color hoser for green)
Wrath of Marit Lage (blue color hoser for red)

Eastern Paladin and Execute (black color hosers for white)
Slay and Western Paladin (black color hosers for green)

Boil (red color hoser for blue)
Flashfires (red color hoser for white)
Guerrilla Tactics (red color hoser for black)

Choke (green color hoser for blue)
Gaea's Herald (green color hoser for blue)
Spreading Algae (green color hoser for black)

Defense Grid (artifact color hoser for blue)

I guess we need to talk about the new ones. Let's start with Karma, since it seems to be the most talked-about. While it is clearly superior to Starlight, the card it replaces, I think the possible impact of Karma has been overblown. Unless it kills the black mage, Karma doesn't actually prevent the black mage from doing anything. Compare this to the Blue hate cards and you'll see my point. At four mana, it isn't going to come down as fast as you'd like it to (compare it to Compost). I only see this as good against mono black decks, since B/x decks aren't going to run as many Swamps. While one damage for each Swamp in play is potentially very painful, it's just another damage source. The one thing that Karma has going for it is the fact that it is an enchantment; mono-black has no real way to deal with it directly.

Does white really need six color hosers for red in the base set? Don't kid yourself: Sacred Ground is a hate card for a specific deck that happens to be red. Ivory Mask is a potentially devastating card against red and black. I probably could have listed Ivory Mask by itself; it is an enchantment, which is hard for red or black to deal with, and Ivory Mask also combos with Blinding Angel. You don't get an attack phase and you can't target me with burn! Let's see, add Sacred Ground and Ivory Mask to Circle of Protection Red, Sanctimony, and Story Circle Yep, that's five - I had the math right.

Wrath of Marit Lage does not bear much discussion; at five mana, it is just too slow and it doesn't stop burn.

Execute and Slay are fine cards - but I don't think people will use them, even in the sideboard. Black has removal cards that aren't restricted by color. Execute and Slay are not hate cards on the order of Choke or even Karma.

I don't remember Flashfires seeing huge amounts of playtime when it was Standard-legal; it does nothing against pro-red creatures, which are the major concern of the red mage. I do think Flashfires is an upgrade from Disorder. Disorder didn't really do anything that Pyroclasm doesn't do without the color restriction. As a side note, is Distorting Lens a red (or black, for that matter) sideboard card against white?

Does it seem odd that red gets an anti-black sideboard card? I don't know if Guerrilla Tactics will be played. I know that it is at least playable, if only because it's never a completely dead card. I remember times when Guerrilla Tactics saw limited main deck use with the prevalence of Necropotence (and later Pox) decks. While discard isn't what it was in the heyday of Necropotence, the overall quality of burn isn't what it was either.

Blue is the one color that really takes it in the shorts. Green gets two playable sideboard cards against blue: Choke has a lot of things going for it that Karma doesn't. First, it's cheap. Second, by turning all Islands into one use only, it potentially just shuts a blue deck down. Gaea's Herald is not nearly as potentially devastating as Choke, but even Gaea's Herald beats the snot out of 7^th Edition's Thought Leech.

Can there be any doubt that Defense Grid is an anti-blue card? As an artifact, it will be available to any deck that decides to board it. All these blue hate cards coinciding with an overall weakening of countermagic.

Let's take a quick look at Mind Bend. As a one-mana, instant it is potential answer to choke and one that could really turn the tables by 'bending' Islands to Forests. An anti sideboard card sideboard card? Keep in mind that it can only target permanents, not spells, so it won't work against Boil. Mind Bend is a combination Magical Hack and Sleight of Mind. It could have other applications: Sleight Knight, anyone?

Diabolic Tutor, Naturalize, and Zombify
I hate to finish of the list with these three cards. They aren't going to be new to the Type II environment. However the reprinting of them in the base set makes some strong statements about the game. Therefore, an 8^th Edition review can't really ignore them.

The printing of Naturalize and the non-reprinting of Disenchant says two things: First, white will have a hard time with artifacts (that's what green and red do). Second, green will be able to handle enchantments. While this is not new, Naturalize is a lot less awkward than any green enchantment removal before it.

Diabolic Tutor is significant simply because it is a tutor. 7^th Edition had no tutors - well, I guess there was Rampant Growth and Untamed Wilds to tutor for basic lands. Merchant Scroll is also being reprinted. Merchant Scroll can only tutor for instants, and can only find blue ones at that, but it's still a tutor.

The printing of Zombify - and perhaps more importantly, the non-reprinting of Breath of Life - firmly fixes graveyard recursion as a black ability.

There are, of course, a lot of other neat cards in 8^th Edition. I'm sure that I missed some good ones.

Rich Ary
arymr@msn.com