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I am so tired of testing Constructed.

Regionals didn't go as well as planned, as I ended up 4-2 before dropping to go do something productive (rather than try to win twelve packs if I won the last two rounds). It probably didn't help that I switched decks at 11pm the night before the tournament, because I kept getting crushed on Magic Online with the B/g version of Rack that I was testing. A bunch of solid players in the area ended up playing said Rack deck, and Chris Ripple qualified with it. I'm sure the lists will be everywhere in the aftermath articles this week, but I'll post the list I was using before I ditched it for Dredge anyway.

B/g Rack Featured by Nick Eisel on 2007-06-17 (Standard) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/14290.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Artifacts 4 The Rack Creatures 3 Augur of Skulls 4 Dark Confidant 4 Ravenous Rats 4 Tarmogoyf 3 Withered Wretch Instants 3 Funeral Charm 2 Sudden Death	Sorceries 3 Call of the Herd 4 Cry of Contrition 4 Smallpox Basic Lands 13 Swamp Lands 4 Llanowar Wastes 4 Overgrown Tomb Legendary Lands 1 Pendelhaven	Sideboard: 4 Dodecapod 4 Extirpate 4 Deathmark 3 Stupor
Download this deck in Apprentice format!		Download this deck in Magic Online Text format!

The Dodecapods probably can come out now, but I was testing with them in there online because I planned on running them in Regionals to beat the mirror, which was likely to be especially relevant in the later rounds of the tournament. There are plenty of other options in the board if you aren't expecting a lot of this deck, like Bottle Gnomes, Slaughter Pact, Phyrexian Arena, etc.

I abandoned this deck at the last minute because I kept losing and lost faith in it, and instead I played a good Dredge list that Ben Peebles-Mundy gave me. I can't really talk much about that deck without getting scolded, so you'll have to wait until Thursday to hear about it from Ben.

This week I want to slide back into Limited with some overrated and underrated cards, now that we've had a few weeks to draft the completed block. Perhaps next week I'll do another walkthrough.

Deathspore Thallid
I remember a time when I wouldn't even see this guy in the pack because he was only good in the B/G archetype in TTT. Did I mention that B/G was essentially unplayable in that format? Well, the times have changed.

I wrote about Thallids a few weeks back, and this guy is top notch now that the full block is available. Even if you don't end up super heavy into Thallids, you can just open a Sprout Swarm (best common in Future Sight by far, by the way) and your Deathspore is golden. I've been picking this as high as third or fourth in medium-strength packs, and having multiples is certainly a good thing as the opponent must kill every one you play.

Faceless Devourer
Two words, one of them hyphenated : Infiltrator il-Kor.

The Devourer rarely ever butchered anything back in TTT or TTP, but now he handles the best Blue common in Future Sight. He still kills Looters and Zealot il-Vecs as well, and can just run evasion if nothing else. I wouldn't pick this high, but I see other people still dismissing it entirely since it has trouble blocking. Overall value has gone up slightly on this one, enough to make it worth mentioning.

Spell Burst
I always thought I was sneaky when I'd board this in when I knew the game was going to go long, and my opponent would likely have no answer to it once it was online. Being able to Mystical Teachings it up is always a big perk as well. Despite all of this, it rarely made the cut in the maindeck due to being too clunky in most situations.

Enter Future Sight, and now everybody and their brother has morphs.

So now Spell Burst serves as a tempo card instead of clunky, and it still has that added benefit of being excellent if the game goes long. I now maindeck this card pretty regularly, and I have to say that being able to counter a morph for one Blue mana is really good in TPF.

Penumbra Spider
Seriously, I still see people taking Baloth over this, and it frustrates the hell out of me (unless I'm being shipped the Spider). Future Sight is full of 3/3 fliers that the Spider is a perfect answer to. Whip-Spine Drake, Lucent Liminid, and even Knight of Sursi are all halted by this guy. He also blows out entire archetypes, as both B/R and U/B have enormous difficulty getting through him.

It's obvious by now that he's a top common, but I've been of the opinion for a while now that he is by far the best Green common in Time Spiral.

Strength in Numbers
There are no replacements for this effect in Planar Chaos or Future Sight. That makes it even more valuable than it already was. The fact that it can go large and also gives Trample is so good. With cards like Sprout Swarm and Kavu Primarch now around, Strength just gets that much better. This is my pick for 2nd best common, though I think I have taken it over Spider before when I already had Empty the Warrens or something.

Think of it this way: there are plenty of “replacements” for something like Durkwood Baloth or Search for Tomorrow in the last two sets. There are no cards that are anywhere near as good as Strength in the combat trick department. I've first picked this card a bunch of times, and always been happy with the decision.

Psychotic Episode and Cancel
I mentioned this in a previous article, but you need an answer to Sprout Swarm even if it's not in your maindeck. Cancel is basically always good enough for maindeck, and Episode is good enough if you can Madness it with any regularity.

Celestial Crusader
Heavy White with a splash is now a very attractive option. Future Sight really helped out the U/W archetype, and this guy is just amazing in most of those decks. The only real problem is that Whip-Spine Drake is actually Blue and doesn't get the bonus, but I doubt you'll care if you have him and Crusader in play as you're probably in pretty good shape.

Stuffy Doll
Sorry guys, this is not a bomb.

Yes, it's still very playable. It also dies to a ton of things. Off of the top of my head, it dies to Shaper Parasite, Erratic Mutation, Feebleness, Ichor Slick, Piracy Charm, and also just fliers. It's not a late pick or anything, but I've seen it taken over Lightning Axe, Fathom Seer, and Rift Bolt, all of which I'm convinced were incorrect picks. The only actual benefit of taking this super early is that it keeps your color options open.

Cloudchaser Kestrel
This is a double-edged sword. On one hand, this guy is awesome now because there are an abundance of targets. On the other hand, as the White player you probably have some of those targets in your deck, especially since most of them are good ones like Lucent Liminid and Temporal Isolation. The card has definitely gotten better with Melancholy, Second Wind, Utopia Vow, and Leaden Fists floating around, but you just have to be careful with it.

Blightspeaker
Because, you know, Rebels are the wave of the future. Or something.

This guy is clearly awesome now. He usually searches up Deepcavern Imp or Big Game Hunter for me (I kinda have an obsession with the Hunter, according to some people). He's even sicker in B/W, or if you get multiples and the game stalls as you can just ping your opponent out. He also gives you a reason to splash Bound in Silence, should you get passed it. Overall he's a strong card that got better with the addition of the third set, so you should pick him a tad higher. It's also worth mentioning that this shouldn't be a hard thing to do, since Black absolutely sucks in Planar Chaos with the exception of a few cards.

Midnight Charm
All three abilities on this card are very useful. I think I may be the only person in the world to have used the "tap a creature" ability more than the "deal one damage, gain one life" ability. This always goes very late, and I'm happy to play two copies in most decks. It will usually trade one-for-one, either by killing a guy or with the First Strike ability and doing so for one Black mana is a good deal.

Pongify
Initially I thought this would be very good, but after actually playing with it a few times I don't like it as much as I thought I would. It puts you into awkward situations a lot where you have to kill one of their key guys and then the 3/3 is just too much for you anyway. It'd be nice if you could just trade guys and make an Ape early in the game all the time, but that just hasn't happened for me. Also, there is a lot of bounce in this format so it's debatable how often the Ape is really going to do the job for you.

Overall the card is still okay, but I remain unimpressed.

Fa'adiyah Seer
Call me crazy, but I really like this card now, especially in B/G. There are tons of Madness cards now as well as Dread Return, Evolution Charm, Grave Scrabbler, and other ways to mill a good creature and then get it back later. Drawing extra land is also pretty spicy. I've only run him once in U/G and he wasn't great, so it's possible that he is archetype specific to B/G only. Maybe someone with more experience with the Seer and offer up an opinion on this in the forums?

At any rate, the card has certainly gotten better in full block and is worth considering.

Dawn Charm
All of the Charms are awesome in this Limited format, but I'm only going to talk about this one and Midnight Charm since I feel their values went up most with the addition of Future Sight. All I know is that big alpha strikes are a huge part of TPF draft, especially with Sprout Swarm now in the mix, and every time we do a three-on-three team draft my teammates are always asking me if I passed Dawn Charm, because they are probably going to lose to it if I did.

Somehow Fog is just that good in this environment. Having other uses is just a bonus.

Mana Tithe
I've come around on this card slightly since everyone else seems to like it so much. My main reason for liking it is that it counters Sprout Swarm most of the time. When someone has a Swarm they will always try to maximize it and play right into the Tithe even if they get a few tokens beforehand. The only time this isn't true is if they haven't seen the Tithe in a previous game. The card still isn't great, but it's playable.

Augur of Skulls
While I'm not sure how to explain this as it seems fairly obvious to me, this guy is really good and doesn't get anywhere near the respect it deserves. Not only does it draw the game out by being a Regenerator, but your opponent must always worry that you'll just make him discard two and maybe get it back with Grave Scrabbler to go another time. The nice thing is that it can act as a Mind Rot at any point in the game, but it is never a dead draw like Mind Rot was when your opponent has no cards in hand.

Mistmeadow Skulk
I've lost entire matches to this card alone. Depressing, eh?

There are decks out there that just aren't equipped to deal with this little dork. I actually sideboarded in Spellwild Ouphe and Llanowar Augur one time just so I could block him! Still ended up losing that match when my opponent locked the board down, killed my Ouphe, and the little guy dealt about thirteen points of unblockable damage. There will be matchups where he might not do a lot, but in that case you just board him out. Overall I'd say he will be very solid against the majority of decks you play against, and also a real pain to remove unless you have something like Grapeshot.

Luis Scott-Vargas handed me my first beating with this guy in a team draft, and ever since I've respected the Skulk. It's been good every time someone played it against me.

Even the Odds
I've heard some people say they don't like this because it is too situational and may be dead in the late game, but I think it can be very good depending on what deck you're drafting. I wouldn't take this if I was in an aggressive White strategy, but it is amazing in a more controlling archetype. The best part is that you should know which one you're in by pack 3 and can make an informed decision. This card should buy a control deck enough time to get set up, and can certainly generate some card advantage against an opponent with lots of X/1s.

Marshalling Cry and Haze of Rage
These have both been really good for me as finishers, and Haze of Rage tends to kill people out of nowhere. Tim Aten and I played a game where I was crushing him the entire time and then he just played a couple of dorks, and suddenly I was dead on the next turn.

I've scoured the Future Sight card list about five times now trying to find more cards from that set to write about, but the fact of the matter is that most of the cards are very obvious in their power levels. I'd hope now that people realized that the Spellshapers in the third set are very strong, especially Sparkspitter and Skirk-Ridge Exhumer. I guess a large part of this is that there are a lot of vanilla creatures which are all good, but also pointless to write about.

I think the full block draft is a pretty solid format overall, even if Sprout Swarm was a huge mistake. Most of the archetypes are playable, and there are a lot of directions you can go, which always makes for a healthy format. Hopefully this article provoked some thought that may help during your next draft.

See you next week, most likely with a detailed draft walkthrough from Magic Online.

Nick Eisel
Soooooo on MTGO
Sun3urst@hotmail.com