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housebeleren · 2 years

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Throne of Eldraine Limited Card Re-Evalauations

We’re almost ready to go nuts with Theros Beyond Death, but before we do so, I want to wrap up Throne of Eldraine. One of my favorite parts of evaluating every set as they preview is revisiting them as the format is winding down to see how my assessments changed. In some cases, I’m just plain wrong, and that’s almost the most fun. Since I rate cards on a 5 point scale, I won’t bother with anything that only changed half a point in my assessment from the start of the format to now. Only cards that I missed by a full point or more. Let’s go.

Initial Rating: 1.5 New Rating: 2.5

I... don’t really know what I was thinking here. My only guess is that I was too distracted by it being more expensive than Raise the Alarm and had too much memory of Sworn Companions being mediocre to think about it properly in context. But Instant speed makes this incredibly more playable, and I frequently used it as a combat trick to take out opposing X/1s or just gain some life then chump block. Plus, the go-wide deck in Green/White was real, and this card was great there. Now watch as I completely overestimate Omen of the Sun...

Initial Rating: 2.0 New Rating: 3.0

I got too caught up in the 3/1 for 2 mana trope, and didn’t appreciate just how good Adventures were going to end up being. This card is playable in almost every deck, but it was straight up nuts in a dedicated Green/White Adventure build, where it could save a creature from removal, let that creature go on its Adventure again, and still come down to trade with something else. The card is flexible and cheap in all modes, and that total package was just greater than the sum of its parts. (In direct contradiction to what I said in the initial rating.)

Initial Rating: 1.0 New Rating: 2.5

Whew, I was quick to dismiss this one. Turns out, the format was grindier than I anticipated, making all aspects of this card better. Ramp was totally viable, and jumping from 3 to 5 mana often put you cleanly ahead of your opponent. I think I’ve gotten a fresh hand off of it at least once every time I’ve drafted it, and that’s pretty impressive for what initially looked like a Commander gimmick. It also has the benefit of being an Artifact, which several Blue cards care about. I’ve had it not work, but usually I’m pretty happy to see it, and it’s quickly become one of my pet favorites in the set.

Initial Rating: 2.5 New Rating: 3.5

My initial rating on this card is entirely due to the triple-Black mana cost, and my assumption that it would be harder to draft monocolor (or heavily skewed 2-color) than it turned out to be. Mono decks are completely viable in this format, as are 10/7 Land splits, making Ayara completely viable if you pick her early. In mono-Black, she’s more like a 4.0, because she just does so much, but I think the new rating of 3.5 is correct, given the constrictions needed to make her great.

Initial Rating: 1.5 New Rating: 2.5

I don’t feel too bad about this one, since a lot of people underestimated what turned out to be one of the most reliable Black finishers in the format. It has a lot to do with how grindy the games could go, since this definitely is not what you want to see against a blazing fast start. But most games went pretty long, and the card advantage netted by this was very real. Sure, you wouldn’t play a 4/5 for 7 mana on its own, but coming with a discard spell attached is a surprisingly powerful package.

Initial Rating: 0.5 New Rating: 2.5

I really missed this one, didn’t I? It went on a roller coaster, first being pretty ignored until people started playing against it, then it became all the rage once people saw how it performed, to the point that many people overdrafted it. And it eventually settled somewhere in the middle. Not every deck wants it, but several do, and it has the potential to just grind the game to a halt. To be clear, this card is severely unfun, and was a contributor to the fact that there were games that ended in natural decking simply by drawing every card you have, one at a time. At first blush, it looks like Blood Reckoning, which is mediocre for sure, but the life gain tacked on makes it so, so much more frustrating, since it effectively gives all your creatures -1/-0 on offense as well. Let’s hope there aren’t any sleeper asshole cards like this hiding in the next set.

Still salty about the design here. I desperately wish this card were White and granted Lifelink & “can’t be blocked by creatures with power 3 or greater.” (Aka turns your creature into a Beloved Princess. I will die on this hill.)

Initial Rating: 2.0 New Rating: 1.0

As far as how it actually performs, this was the first card I dramatically overestimated rather than underestimated. My hunch is that I expected the format to be much faster than it was, and that Haste would matter more than it did. As is, the format lent itself towards long board stalls, and the value of this as a way to push through extra damage diminished significantly.

Initial Rating: 2.5 New Rating: 3.5

I correctly estimated that any power in this card lie pretty much entirely in its ability to generate Food. What I failed to estimate is just how good that would be. The Food deck was one of the best decks in the format, and if you were lucky enough to draft this dumb bird, you’d be completely set, as it both ramped you into your big Green threats and enabled the Food payoffs. But even in a deck with zero Food synergies at all, it effectively reads 3G+Tap: Gain 3 life. And that is a pain in the ass card if ever I’ve heard of one, especially in a format prone to stalls.

Initial Rating: 4.0 New Rating: 3.0

RTFC for fucks sake. I totally misread this and assumed it drew a card for every non-Human creature that hit, instead of being capped at one per combat. Make no mistake, it’s still good as-is, but the format proved especially harsh to mister leaf kitty here. By the time he came down, the board is usually already cluttered and the removal was abundant. In Green/Blue, he goes up a half point, since there are fliers to help get through, but he so underperformed my initial expectations in general. Mythic Uncommon, this is not.

Initial Rating: 2.5 New Rating: 1.5

We end this with a Land, which is unusual since they’re usually pretty easy to evaluate. The thing with Tournament Grounds is that its restriction is really actually a major drawback. Not being able to use the colored mana to cast removal or non-Knight creatures turned out to be a liability, and it was especially punishing with Adamant in the set, as most of the good Adamant cards were Instants & Sorceries. Lastly, given how much monocolor was drafted, very few 3 color decks actually got made, and I found I’d usually rather have more basics than a conditional fixer land that didn’t work with half the cards in my deck.

So that’s it. I grossly misvalued 10 cards for Throne of Eldraine Limited. Which is actually pretty decent, if I do say so myself. I had 12 for Core Set 2020 and 16 for War of the Spark. Let’s hope I can get even better for Theros Beyond Death!

#MtG

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housebeleren · 2 years

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Theros Beyond Death Limited: Power Commons

Welp, it’s that time. A new set is upon us, and so it’s time to evaluate it for Limited. This post will go over the best Commons in Theros Beyond Death, that will make up the bulk of Draft & Sealed play. Let’s jump right in

White

I bring this card up for two reasons. For one, I do think there are enough Enchantments in this set (and enough with Flash) for this to do real work. It gives all Enchantment Creatures an ETB tap, which is pretty potent, and exactly what White needs to push through damage in the midgame. But the second reason I bring this up is that it is a Common White creature with more than 3 power! There have only been THREE cards in Magic’s ENTIRE HISTORY that had more than 3 power at Common, as printed without mechanics or counters. And the last such creature was printed in Scars of Mirrodin. This fact alone makes the unicorn a standout card, but it also means that Magic R&D may actually be taking the issue of White’s power level seriously, not just for Constructed formats, but also for Limited. I’m a fan, and I think it’s legitimately a decent card. 3.0/5

Luminous Bonds is always good, and this one comes with additional utility to deal with creatures that still have problematic abilities down the line. Also, some color combinations can sacrifice for value, so this potentially helps get around that. Being an Enchantment is also extra useful in this format, and as an Aura, it can be found with Heliod’s Pilgrim and can be returned with cards like Archon of Falling Stars. I’ll start high on this. 3.0/5

I love that this is at Common, after Rally for the Throne was stuck at Uncommon in ELD. Enchantments with Flash are great, and will help you trigger Constellation with ease, and the added utility in the late game makes this a strong card for most White decks. 2.5/5

I couldn’t not mention this card. It’s definitely maindeckable, but there will be situations where it isn’t serving you, so don’t hesitate to board this out, but I’d basically always start with one. I’ll reevaluate after playing the format a bit. 2.5/5

It’s a bit costly, but Instant and the little lifegain boost seem fair. There are a lot of big beasties running around in this set, especially given that Ferocious is a theme on some cards (R/G in particular). I’d pretty much always start with one, and consider boarding extras in if I see lots of targets. 2.5/5

White seems to have done really well, with a lot of removal at Common. Even though some of it is situational, it gives the color a lot of room to board and flex as needed. There are some decent Common fliers as well, so I think White is shaping up pretty well, compared to some previous sets.

Blue

I always like these effects. Again, being an Enchantment gives it extra utility in this format, so I’d pick this more highly than in other recent sets. It even deals with Gods, once they turn on, which is important (if we learned anything from War of the Spark). Plus the name and art are A+. 3.0/5

I normally don’t rush to these cantrip/filter style cards in Limited, but I think this one is super good. First, casting spells on your opponent’s turn is a theme for Blue in this set (especially paired with Red), and this is cheap enough to be able to do something on your own turn, and hold this up for that purpose. Second, it’s another Enchantment, which in this set can be a combat trick with the right triggers. Third, it has the potential to dig you really deep into your deck, and that early game/late game utility is super useful. I’ll always start one of these. 2.5/5

I love this little guy. Wind Drake is a little anemic these days, but adding Flash goes a long way to making this exciting again, as a surprise blocker or even just a way to trigger your “opponent’s turn” triggers. Seems solid. 3.0/5

Honestly, I’m a little worried about Blue. Very few of the Commons seem really strong on their own, and so many of them being context-dependent is a little concerning. We’ll see if the synergies are tight enough to make up for the lack of raw power this time around. There are some other decent fliers at Common, so worst case it has those.

Black

It’s expensive, but unless this format ends up way faster than I anticipate, this is going to be the spell you most want to have against a bomb. For Sealed, I’d give this a 3.5 or maybe even a 4.0, because you are almost guaranteed to run against a God or some giant Rare creature with Escape. In Draft, it goes down somewhat, so I’ll split the difference and give it a 3.0/5

Depending on how fast the format ends up, it’s possible that Mire’s Grasp ends up better than Final Death. In B/W or B/G, I might actually pick this over the plain kill spell, since those colors have options to search for & recur Enchantments, potentially allowing for some pretty gross value. I’m starting pretty high on this. I’d still usually take the first copy of Final Death first, but I could absolutely see this being the better choice once the format shakes out. 3.0/5

Raise Dead is never super exciting, but Raise Dead with Flash that also triggers a major set mechanic is a lot more appealing. That, plus the mana flood protection makes this pretty solid. I’ll always start one. 3.0/5

I put these two together because they serve a similar purpose. In the B/R deck in particular, these will be solid outlets to feed sacrifice fodder to and get some value. I can imagine the Lampad being better in Draft, while Spark Reaper, I mean Soulreaper is going to be great in Sealed. Either way, I think they’ll both be playable. 2.5/5

Black has some great removal, and seems like it’s got some pretty solid value at Common. I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up a pretty strong color.

Red

Hero of the Games seems like Red’s strongest Common creature to me. There are enough pump spells & Aura’s in the set that it shouldn’t be hard to get some triggers out of this, and the fear of that can make combat very tricky for your opponent. It could end up worse than I expect, but I’m going to start with the assumption that it’s solid. 2.5/5

I think people may underestimate this at first, just because it’s an Aura and the +1/+1 is minimal. But really, it’s Sorcery removal, and that’s something I’ll basically always play. 3.0/5

This being an Enchantment makes it worth being a 2 mana Shock, and again, the extra late-game utility is real. Always run this. 3.0/5

Red also makes me a bit nervous. It has some decent burn, but very few of the creatures strike me as particularly strong right off the bat. I’ll give it a try, but it feels similar to Blue in that respect.

Green

One mana Deathtouchers are always solid, and I’d always run this. It holds off attacks on the ground surprisingly well, and for surprisingly long. Just don’t grab tons of these, as there is no Rabid Bite in this set. 2.5/5

Like Revoke Existence, I think maindecking one of these is completely reasonable, especially in sealed. It also has the added utility of shutting down Escape creatures, so my hunch is most games will have multiple targets for this. Side it out if you need. 2.5/5

I love this for removal for Green. It helps make sure your creature survives its fight, while leaving it with a little bonus for later, and triggering Constellation. Seems strong and most decks will want one or two of these. 2.5/5

We’ve come a long way from “Bear with Set’s Mechanic”. While we still get those too, I’ve really been liking this trend for green getting. Now we have “Boar with Set’s Mechanic”, and I’m kinda all here for that. (See Fierce Witchstalker, Bloom Hulk, etc). (And yes, I know the Boars were 5 drops, but it works better than “Elephant with Set’s Mechanic.) This will be great, and is definitely Green’s best Common. 3.0/5

Green seems... middling, at first glance. It has some decent removal and a few solid creatures at Common, but nothing that screams ridiculous to me, which is a good thing. My guess is Green will be good, as usual, but not feel busted. Hopefully.

The Rest of the Commons

The remaining cards are the ones that didn’t make my top picks per color. Rated out of 5.

Daybreak Chimera - If you can get this down for 4 mana, it’s great. I’ll start pretty high assuming you can do that. 2.5

Flicker of Fate - Cute protection against removal, and since it can hit creatures you don’t control, can also work as Aura removal. That said, I’m expecting this to be more of a sideboard card, since ETB effects, while they exist, are not a major theme of the set. 2.0

Glory Bearers - I could see this going higher or lower, but for now, I’m treating it as average filler with the small bonus of triggering constellation. 2.5

Heliod’s Pilgrim - This new art is FIRE. So here’s the thing, this fetches Dreadful Apathy, which is pretty sweet, but that��s really the only White Aura at Common worth it. There are two at Uncommon. With a couple of removal Auras in your deck, this goes up to a 3.0. With one or zero targets, I’d move this down to a 2.0. So... 2.5

Hero of the Pride - In the dedicated Heroic deck, this goes up in value. But in most decks, it’s pretty mediocre filler. 1.5

Indomitable Will - Flash makes this decent as a combat trick that sticks around. Best in R/W heroic, but playable in any deck with Enchantment payoffs. 2.0

Karametra’s Blessing - I like this a lot, and am glad to see that White is getting this effect, since Green has been taking it a lot in recent years (and doesn’t need it). Most of the time it’s a solid trick, sometimes it’s a full counter. I’d try running one, but don’t go nuts. 2.0

Leonin of the Lost Pride - Will usually trade, and occasionally take out a pending Escape card with it. Solid filler. 2.0

Nyxborn Courser - Each color gets one of these, and they’re all about the same level of playable. This helps with Devotion in dedicated White decks, and is an Enchantment when that counts. S’aright. 2.0

Pious Wayfarer - You have to be really deep on Enchantments for this to work. I’d mostly pass it. 1.5

Rumbling Sentry - This would be way better as a 4/5. But, at 3/6, not much is getting through the Scry is a reasonable bonus. I feel like White would have had to pay 6 for this a year ago, so progress is progress I suppose. 2.0

Sentinel’s Eyes - Creepy demon eyes aside, this is... vaguely playable. Escape takes it from complete garbage to actually passable, and also is a way to enable repeat Constellation triggers after trading it. Worth a try in heavy Constellation decks, but I’d be wary otherwise. 1.5

Sunmane Pegasus - A bit smaller than I would like, but evasion seems rarer in this set than normal, so it’s probably decent. 2.0

Transcendent Envoy - Auras tend to be cheap anyway, so the ability doesn’t do a lot. I’d run this more as a Constellation piece if I was short on filler. 1.5

Brine Giant - It shouldn’t be too hard to get this to 5 mana, at which point it’s a solid deal. If the format ends up really fast, this will go down. 2.5

Chain to Memory - I really wish this were a cantrip. As is, I’d only run it in the R/U deck, where Instants are more valuable. 1.5

Deny the Divine - Good against bombs, good against Escape, good against Gods, makes this better than an average Counter. I’d consider one mainboard, especially in Sealed. 2.0

Eidolon of Philosophy - If the format ends up very slow, this could go way up. As-is, it’s mediocre Constellation filler. 1.5

Memory Drain - I’m ready for Dissolve at Common, if they’re really trying to push power level at lower rarity. At 4 mana, this doesn’t quite make it for me. 1.5

Naiad of Hidden Coves - A 2/3 for 3 is weak, but passable, and as an Enchantment, this will be relevant filler in some decks. 2.0

Nyxborn Seaguard - A whole mana for one extra point of toughness over the White one is rough. I’d only run this in very dedicated Constellation builds. And maybe not even then. 1.5

Riptide Turtle - I mean, it’s better than Wall of Mist? 1.5

Sleep of the Dead - I get it, this is a “payoff” for the self-mill decks, by being able to tap stuff down over and over. It’s passable for tempo-based Blue decks, and can help push through an end game. 2.0

Starlit Mantle - If you have a bomb worth saving from removal, this could do work, but I’d rather have another generic creature if not. 1.5

Stern Dismissal - Unsummon is basically always playable, and this is better. I wouldn’t take it too highly. It’s more for tempo than control. 2.0

Thirst for Meaning - Draw three is big game, and I think running these will generally be correct for most Blue decks. You’ll typically have an Enchantment to pitch. 2.5

Towering-Wave Mystic - Not good enough as a milling build-around on its own, most of the time you’ll target yourself if you’re in the archetype. Outside of U/B or if you somehow draft the mill deck, I’d pass. 1.5

Triton Waverider - You want lots of Enchantments to run this, but its worst case as a Hill Giant isn’t ... super embarrassing, I guess. 2.0

Witness of Tomorrows - I liked Cloudreader Sphinx more, but this provides some late game utility and is an Enchantment. Most Blue decks will run it. 2.5

Aspect of Lamprey - This is the set’s Mind Rot, and I think it’s worse here than usual. Escape makes this a potential liability, and Lifegain isn’t really a theme, so I would generally only side it in against decks that can’t somehow get advantage out of it. Which is good, because I don’t want to look at it any longer than I have to. 1.5

Blight-Breath Catoblepas - I look forward to hearing people try to say this card so much. It’s not going to be too hard for this to be a 2-for-1, but you’ll need to be heavy black for it to be reliable. 2.5

Discordant Piper - Mostly a significant downgrade from Doomed Dissenter. But if you need sac fodder, you’ll take this and not complain. 2.0

Fruit of Tizerus - Magnificent pecs aside, I doubt this will work out very often. It’s possible the heavy control U/B deck will materialize with this as a real win con, but unless it does, this just isn’t great. 1.0

Funeral Rites - I like Read the Bones better, but this is decent, and fuels escape, so could be worse. 2.0

Grim Physician - Can take out a bear in combat or be sacrificed for value & take out an X/1. Probably only playable in R/B, and goes up in that deck. 1.5

Mogis’s Favor - I do like that you can use this to pick off X/1s, and the Escape cost is minimal. Probably not worth it in general. 1.5

Nyxborn Marauder - At least this one threatens real damage and can trade well. 2.0

Pharika’s Libation - I wish this cost 2 mana, but it’s still passable at 3. Definitely side this out against tokens though. 2.0

Rage-Scarred Berserker - Decently sized threat, and will probably push something through when it comes down. I’d try one in most decks. 2.5

Scavenging Harpy - If you can eat an Escape card with this, you’ve gotten value. Otherwise, it’s okay. 2.0

Temple Thief - I like these conditional evasion creatures Black has been getting. It’s filler, but sometimes it’ll do work. 2.0

Underworld Charger - Probably the best Escape Common in Black. Can’t block is a real concern on cards this size, but will be a good offensive threat. 2.5

Venomous Hierophant - 3/3 is the wrong size for Deathtouch, and the ETB doesn’t add much. 2.0

Arena Trickster - If you’re in the dedicated Flash deck, this goes up. Most of the time, I’d assume you’ll get one counter on this, at which point, it’s a solid playable. 2.5

Aspect of Manticore - One mana over Sure Strike gets you a power buff that sticks around, which is probably still playable. 2.0

Final Flare - If you have tons of sac fodder, this goes up. Otherwise, it’s decent removal. But you really want to eat a token. 2.5

Flummoxed Cyclops - We need the word flummoxed more. This is decent, and is a great on-curve threat that can sometimes hold off one small flier. 2.5

Incendiary Oracle - I like bears, and I like firebreathing bears even more. The exile clause is just some extra goodness on this already solid creature. 2.5

Infuriate - Apparently this is becoming Red’s trick going rate. Sure. 2.0

Irreverent Revelers - Most of the time, I’d skip this. Unless you see a Shadowspear or some really good Artifact target. 1.5

Nyxborn Brute - Shame there’s no Fling in this set. It’s big, but it trades down to almost everything. I’d rather it were a 6/4. 1.5

Oread of Mountain’s Blaze - Fire nymph, huh? I’m sold. This card is an effective early blocker and flood protection later. 2.5

Portent of Betrayal - 4 mana is a lot for this effect, even with Scry added on. And most of the sac outlets aren’t free either. 1.5

Satyr’s Cunning - Not an effect I want to cast once, let alone repeat, for tokens that can’t block. An engine, this is not. 1.0

Skophos Warleader - Decent stats for the size, but the sac payoff isn’t particularly worth it. 2.0

Stampede Rider - I like that this triggers off itself if you have it pumped up. Solid all around. 2.5

Thrill of Possibility - Most Red decks will want one. 2.0

Underworld Rage-Hound - In aggressive Red decks, this could be pretty good. It will trade at least once, sometimes twice. 2.0

Wrap in Flames - A classic at this point. Again, good for aggressive decks, and can help push through some damage. 2.0

Gift of Strength - This will be just as useful as it always is. 2.0

Hyrax Tower Scout - Grants one-time pseudo-Vigilance, and is a well-costed creature on its own. 2.5

Ilysian Caryatid - Mana dorks be mana-dorking. Helps with double & triple mana costs, and useful for ramp builds. 2.0

Inspire Awe - The chance of the board state making this unfavorable for you is real for a card that often isn’t worth it anyway. I generally would avoid this. 1.0

Loathsome Chimera - This will always trade once, sometimes twice, though these super asymmetrical stats really bug me on a Green card. Probably decent, all things told. 2.0

Nexus Warden - Without lifegain synergies, this is just as stall. Good thing this has Reach, so it at least can serve as a blocker against evasion. 2.0

Nylea’s Forerunner - A bit costly at 5 mana, but the trample benefit is decent, and it is an Enchantment. 2.0

Nylea’s Huntmaster - Apparently her Huntmaster doesn’t get to be an Enchantment. The ETB here is okay, but without Trample, is situationally useful. Still, it can threaten a lot of damage and force a trade. 2.0

Nyxborn Colossus - Probably the best of the cycle, this is the largest creature at Common and will pretty much own the board, besides being an Enchantment for decks that care. 2.5

Omen of the Hunt - The least useful of this cycle, unless you’re really in a Ramp deck. Still, ramping is good, and the same stuff applies about it being an Enchantment & having Scry. 2.0

Plummet - So there’s the dragon in this set. Just... dying. That’s coo I guess. Sideboard only, as usual. 1.0

Relentless Pursuit - Three mana is one more than I like paying for this type of effect, and Escape isn’t enough to make the Graveyard part incredibly useful. 1.5

Setessan Skirmisher - Essentially the “Bear with Set’s Mechanic” of this set, this is likely going to be playable most of the time, though it really could have been a 2/2. 2.0

Setessan Training - In a Constellation-heavy deck, this can do work, but I suspect lots of people will take these more highly than they should. 1.5

Skola Grovedancer - Mostly a 2/2 and will occasionally gain you a life or two. The self-mill is a poor way to fuel Escape unless you have something bonkers like one of the Escape mythics. 1.5

Altar of the Pantheon - Most of the time it’s a Manalith, but if you get lucky, it’ll be a Manalith that’s also a Fountain of Renewal. 2.0

Bronze Sword - Generic equipment seems less than great in this set. 1.5

Thaumaturge’s Familiar - The ease of casting this is nice, and the Scry is a good little boost. Not great, but playable. 2.0

Traveler’s Amulet - I like this. It’s a cute way to fix your colors and then fuel Escape, and given the number of double & triple colors in mana costs in this set, I’d usually run one of these. 2.0

Wings of Hubris - I mean, it’s pretty cheap. I think one copy is playable in the right deck. 1.5

Unknown Shores - This will be better here than it was the last couple times we saw it. With so many double and triple mana costs around, it’s useful to have a Land that can either flex you into your second and third colors, or help you double down on your first. I’d run one copy most decks. 2.0

And that’s it. One thing that’s nice to see is the spread between the Commons isn’t huge. i.e. there aren’t tons of awful Commons that nobody wants. At least not from my initial guess. We’ll see how the format shakes out.

#MtG #Theros Beyond Death

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housebeleren · 3 years

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Theros Beyond Death Limited: Premium Uncommons

Time for the Uncommons of Threos Beyond Death!

White

Archon is costly, but it’s likely going to be the biggest evasive threat on the board, and by the time you get it out, it shouldn’t be difficult at all to get value out of the death trigger, if your opponent does remove it right away. Seems like a pretty easy 2-for-1, which is what you need your Uncommon 6-drops to do. 3.0/5

Banishing Light takes care of literally any threat on the board, for a very reasonable price. Yes, it can be undone with Enchantment removal, but there’s not so much running around that it’s extremely likely. This is better than usual in this set because it also triggers Constellation, and Exile is much better than sending to the grave, because of Escape.. Take highly. 3.5/5

Knocking out all abilities is a critical part of this card, and is a large part of what makes it playable. This will completely neutralize any bomb Creature for 4 turns, which is a lot of action for only 2 mana. I’d still usually rather have the Banishing Light, but this is not bad at all. 3.0/5

I like that there are multiple ways to recover used Enchantments at Uncommon in this set. It makes for deep interactions that are tons of fun. This teller of tales is a decently sized body on his own, and the option to put a Dreadful Apathy back on top of your deck is big game. It reminds me a little of the Choking Restraints/Ironclad Slayer combo from Eldritch Moon limited. I’m a fan. 3.0/5

At Uncommon, White gets a lot of strong interaction and some reasonably costed cards with lots of potential for creative plays. This is exciting, because White is frequently a super straightforward color in Limited, but it’s clear there’s room for depth and subtlety in the color that is very refreshing to see.

Blue

This is basically a 3/2 that dies and leaves behind a 2/3. And that is really solid value for only 3 mana. A vanilla 3/2 for 3 is playable filler anyway, and will usually trade reasonably. I suspect this will go undervalued by a lot of people. 3.0/5

Aside from having absolutely gorgeous art, Callaphe is a pretty strong turn 3 play. It doesn’t take much for her to be a 4/3 or bigger, at which point she’s great value for the cost, and she taxes all targeted removal against her, as a bonus. Add the fact that she triggers Constellation and adds 2 for Devotion, and I’m pretty well sold. 3.0/5

It’s one mana more than Banishing Light, but it’s just about as effective, though it doesn’t clear abilities, which is unfortunate. Even so, it’s pretty close to unconditional removal, which is much needed in Blue. 3.0/5

This is a card you’d play as an ordinary creature anyway, with the base stats. But this is one of the few ways in the set to truly abuse Constellation, and it will also let you reset your Enchantment-based removal to scale up to bigger targets as the game goes on. And that’s not even mentioning that there are several good ETB triggers to reuse. I’m suspecting this will be really good. It’s the successor to Riptide Chimera, but this one trades stats for being optional, which I’m very okay with. 3.5/5

If Ravnica Allegiance taught us anything, it was to not underestimate Faerie Duelist, which won combats and completely warped the combat calculus around its existence. At Uncommon, this will be less, well, common, but the effect is still potent and shouldn’t be ignored. It’s less consistent, but the upside is higher, and a 1/3 is more playable on its own stats than a 1/2. 3.0/5

Blue got a ton of action at Uncommon, which somewhat makes up for my initial impression that the Commons were a little underwhelming. That said, the variance on the Uncommons is much higher, as there are a few that I think will be fairly weak, so snap up these good ones when you see them.

Black

There is no doubt this will be good. Even at 4 mana, it’s playable, and the cost reduction is just a bonus. Premium removal, for sure. 3.5/5

The first Saga to make the cut for me, I suspect this will be pretty good. Creature powers aren’t crazy high in this set, so you should have some good targets for this, and it will be very difficult for them to avoid having to discard something useful if you cast this on curve. Completely obliterating any Escape they may have going on is a great upside, and very relevant. I’d basically always run this, and maybe side it out against the R/G Ferocious deck or something. 3.0/5

Gary’s back! You definitely want a little devotion on the table before casting this, but once you have another few Black Creatures out, this can be a huge life swing. Definitely an incentive to go deep in the color, but not a great reason to pivot if you’re already going somewhere else. 3.0/5

Play this for the 2/1 Deathtouch. The Escape enabling is just a perk. 3.0/5

Pharika’s Spawn seems like it could be pretty close to a Mythic Uncommon. A 3/4 for 4 is fine, if unexciting, but the Escape is where the real action is. For 6 mana and just a few cards from your ‘yard, you get a 5/6 that comes with an edict attached, and that is big game. Assuming it trades once upfront, this is a completely believable 3-for-1. Sometimes, it won’t end up quite that good, but the potential is also there for it to be even better. If you can get repeated Escapes out of this, I don’t see how you’re losing. One of the best Escape payoffs in the set, and I’m starting pretty high on it. I could imagine this getting up to a 4.0 if the format is right for it. But for now, it’s a 3.5/5

Black knocked it out of the park in Uncommons. There were even more I could have picked, but I wanted to limit it to 5 highlighted cards. Given its strong showing at Common as well, I suspect Black will be a powerhouse color. Of all the colors, Black stands out to me as probably the best candidate for mono drafting, since it really doesn’t need much help to be great. If Black is wide open and you can draft mono-Black devotion, I expect that to be great.

Red

I like the Demigods with variable power rather than toughness, and I also like the ones that cost 1CC rather than CC, since they’ll be easier to cast on curve. Anax here threatens a lot of power on his own, but his ability is pretty fierce as well. By himself, he’ll at least always leave behind a 1/1 when he dies, but it has the potential to get really nuts in in the sacrifice deck. I suspect he will play better than he looks at first blush. 3.0/5

A 2/1 for 2 that chucks a Shock when it dies? Sign me up, this is exactly what both aggro and sacrifice decks want, so I suspect these will get snatched up fast. 3.0/5

Okay, this one I admit I’m a bit unsure of. A 4/2 for 3 would normally be around a 2.0, but this one has some extra going for it. The fact that its ability can hit any target is huge, because it can snipe off opposing X/1s or be that one extra point to take down larger creatures with some of Red’s Instant speed removal. And eventually, it’s going to trade with something itself, so I’ll give it the initial benefit of the doubt. It is definitely way better in the R/U Flash deck than in just a normal deck, so adjust your expectations downward accordingly. 3.0/5

Funny how far Scry 1 goes. While I’d generally rather see Lightning Strike, adding the Scry keeps this from feeling bad at Uncommon. It’s strong, flexible removal, and you’ll like it. 3.0/5

Red did decently in the Uncommon department. Like with its Commons, many of the cards feel situational, like they’ll be better in some decks than others, so my gut is telling me that, barring the bombs at Rare & Mythic, Red will be at its best as a support color, and probably not a great candidate for mono drafting (unlike Black, which seems bonkers if you can draft it alone).

Green

I like this. There aren’t very many 1-toughness creatures with Flying, so if you cast it for 1, it’ll mostly be a chump block. But the Escape is pretty sweet, because a 4/5 with Reach is a massively bigger deal than a measly 1/2. This can be an easy 2-for-1 against many decks, and has even a little more ceiling than that. 3.0/5

A 2/3 for 2 would already be pretty playable. Add that it’s an Enchantment in the color that cares the most, that it shuts off counters at no cost, and that it has a late-game mana sink, and you’ve got a potential powerhouse on your hands. My guess is that it will rarely be amazing, but the potential is there, and it will always be at least good. 3.0/5

On its own, this swings as a 3/4 Trample for only 3 mana, and that’s pretty solid. Being able to move its bonus around as the game develops keeps this relevant, and I suspect it will play very well. 3.0/5

Affectionate Indrik is back, and it was good then. I have no reason to suspect it won’t be now, even if I don’t love that Green keeps getting Fight on ETB. 3.0/5

Renata seems great. On her own, she’s a little underpowered, but pumping up all your future creatures is incredibly solid, and it’s unlikely this card will disappoint. 3.0/5

Green feels quite solid. There are very few cards that feel unplayable, and many of the cards are just good on there own, without help. The color seems flexible and reasonably deep, which is a great sign.

Gold & Colorless

For the Gold cards, there’s just the one signpost for each pair at Uncommon, so I’ll go through all of them.

Most of the Black pairings seem to be centered around the Graveyard, and it’s probably the best color to be in if you want to go deep on Escape. Green-Black has a little self mill, a little top of library filter, and some sacrifice to help fill the ‘yard for your powerful Escape creatures. The Acolyte here is exactly what the colors want, and is a great Gravedigger variant for the archetype. 3.0/5

Black-Blue goes heavy on the self-mill, but outside of Escape, there really isn’t any payoff for doing so. Other than this cutie, of course. It’s a cheap and evasive threat, and can easily fuel your Escape cards. I do wish it were a 2/2, since there are some cards that punish one toughness in the set (Wrap in Flames, for example). Still, you’ll usually play this. 3.0/5

Eutropia seems great. The card she reminds me of the most is Skyrider Patrol from M19, which was one of my favorite cards in the set. Most of the Green-based color pairings care about Enchantments, so it shouldn’t be too hard to peck through lots of damage with Eutropia helping you out. 3.0/5

Red/White is a throwback to the Heroic mechanic from original Theros. (Which they very cutely seeded with Feather & Co. in War of the Spark.) For this round on Theros, Red/White is also the go-wide pairing of the set, with the Herioc triggers this time serving as team pump spells. Hero of the Nyxborn is already a good deal, creating two bodies for 3 mana, and if you’re in the colors, it shouldn’t be hard to get a few good combat tricks to make it even spicier. 3.0/5

I like that they’ve been exploring new ways to do Blue/Red besides just “Instants & Sorceries Matter”. After U/R Draw 2 in Eldraine, U/R Flash is a great compliment in this set that feels right (and fuels my argument that Red should be moved to secondary in Flash, and Green should have Flash restricted somewhat, for balance purposes). Anyway, the Chimera here is great. Well-costed on its own, and a great trigger once you start slinging spells on your opponent’s turn. I’m a fan. 3.0/5

White/Black is another Escape archetype, but with some Enchantment recursion to be found on the Uncommon & above rarities. As for this card, I really wish this were 4 mana. I honestly think Wizards needs to allow reanimation to be a touch more aggressively costed, and let White have a little more unconditional reanimation, again for balance reasons. This card does give me some hope that they recognize the need. For Limited, as is, this is a harder to cast Rise from the Grave, but with the added upside that you’ll occasionally be able to snag back a Dreadful Apathy and get some extra removal. It’s decent, but not as good as most of the other cards in this batch. 2.5/5

But seriously, I’m for Resurrection in Standard. I think it’s completely fine in power level, and would be great for White to reclaim some of the pie.

Green/White is the primary “Auras Matter” color pair, which makes perfect sense. Siona, aside from being FIERCE. AS. FUCK., is a fantastic card for the archetype. She digs deep, making the odds pretty decent that you’ll find an Aura to grab, at which point she’s already worth her cost. If you can grab a Dreadful Apathy with this, even better. (The fact that I keep mentioning that card makes me wonder if I should rate it even higher...) And occasionally she’ll phone a friend, which is just all upside. 3.0/5 (with potential to go higher in the right build)

Sacrifice? For Black/Red? Groundbreaking.

Seriously, though, I am eager for Wizards to surprise me with Black/Red sometime. I’ll give it a pass this set, since there is a minor Graveyard theme, so it’s a natural fit. Spectacle in Ravnica Allegiance was such a breath of fresh air for this color pair. But anyhoo, this card. He’s pretty solid. He threatens a lot of damage, and will be very difficult to block, so I’m suspecting he’ll be good. 3.0/5

White/Blue is a very ambiguous archetype this time around, basically just “tempo”. That said, this card threatens to run away with the game very quickly, and will be absolutely bonkers put on a flier or other evasive threat. I seriously wonder if this will bring back the Curious Obsession deck in Standard, except in White/Blue. For Limited, if you can get at least one hit in with this, you’ve saved yourself from getting 2-for-1′d too badly, so I’ll start with the assumption that this is good, and revise down from there. 3.0/5

Last but not least, Red/Green is doing “Ferocious” this time, which I really enjoy as a semi-deciduous theme. Warden of the Chained is a decent payoff for having other 4+ Power creatures, but is a little frustrating if you don’t have very many of them in the deck. You’ll always play this, but it strikes me as a little weaker than some of the others. 2.5/5

Phew... that’s it for the Gold Signpost cards. Just a couple Artifacts to touch on:

I love this. It’s basically an Icy Manipulator, but it costs a little more to activate, but then frees up your mana after you’ve done so. It can also permanently tap down a creature with a tap to activate ability, something Icy couldn’t do. Every deck will be happy to run this. 3.0/5

I feel like they’re finally getting Vehicles right. 4 mana is a touch more than you want for a 3/3, but First Strike, Trample, and Haste are a lot of keywords, and it’s super easy to crew. I don’t know if it will be great, but it’s definitely playable. 2.5/5

The Rest of the Uncommons

Let’s blaze through the remaining cards, lightning round style. (out of 5)

Alseid of Life’s Bounty - I suspect lots of people will run this card who shouldn’t. Sure, it can sacrifice itself to protect a bigger bomb from removal, but it just doesn’t do enough on its own to really warrant much excitement. 1.5

The Birth of Meletis - This does a lot of things, and... none of them are particularly great? Very weird collection of effects. 1.5

Commanding Presence - This is a lot of effects for one Aura, and it should be possible to either get through or take out a blocker the turn you play this, mitigating the 2-for-1 potential. 2.5

Dawn Evangel - Figuring out when this triggers and what it can get back is a feat unto itself. It’s pretty narrow, to be honest, and so I’m really just looking at this as a 2/3 Enchantment creature for Constellation. 2.0

Daxos, Blessed by the Sun - I like Daxos more for constructed, since there aren’t any lifegain triggers in this set to really make this great. He’s solid, just not incredible. 2.5

Favored of Iroas - I like the concept here. Problem is, it shouldn’t be too hard to predict when you’re holding up a Flash Enchantment as a trick, so a lot of the time, it’ll just be a 2/2. Maybe I’m wrong. 2.0

Hero of the Winds - I really wish this were a 2/4 to begin with. 2.0

Phalanx Tactics - Probably the best Heroic enabler in the set, this is perfect for go-wide, but mediocre if you aren’t in the colors. 2.5

Reverent Hoplite - I want at leaset 3 tokens out of this before I feel good about it. Which, shouldn’t be difficult in mono-White, but could be frustrating in most decks. 2.5

Glimpse of Freedom - I don’t really think this is the format for this card. If you’re in Blue/Red, it’s an Instant, so that’s a thing. The escape is expensive enough to likely not come up often. 2.0

Medomai’s Prophecy - This, on the other hand, is a lot of action for 2 mana, even if it is spread out over several turns. Nonbos with self-mill somewhat, but a cheap Divination if you do it right. 2.5

Sage of Mysteries - Gorgeous art. My guess is this usually isn’t worth it, but occasionally you might be able to build a legitimate mill deck around this. And if you see your opponent is self-milling, it’s a great strategy to pivot into. 2.0

Sea God’s Scorn - I’ve been burned with the six mana bounce spells before, so not again. My hunch is this will be playable, but not every deck will want it. 2.5

Shoal Kraken - Seems solid. Possibly will play better than I think, but reminds me of Sage of the Falls, which was only great sometimes. 2.5

Stinging Lionfish - If you get really deep on Flash, this could go up significantly. Most of the time, I’m expecting it to be just fine. 2.5

Sweet Oblivion - Combined with Sage of Mysteries, a true mill deck could be viable. But I wouldn’t run this just to mill myself. 1.5

Whirlwind Denial - Convolute is as Convolute does. 2.0

Agonizing Remorse - In a set with Gods, it would be foolish to assume this is unplayable. But definitely don’t assume it’s premium removal, because it’s not. 2.0

Cling to Dust - This strikes me as pretty decent sideboard hate for a good Escape deck. But I wouldn’t main deck it. 1.5

Enemy of Enlightenment - By the time you get this out, your opponent can work around the discard. But a 5/5 flier is big, so there’s that. The removal in the set seems good enough to dampen this a bit. 2.5

Hateful Eidolon - There aren’t tons of Auras that make me think this is super worth playing, but if you draft like 3 or more Mire’s Grasp, this gets really cute really fast. There’s a deck for this, but it’s not every deck. 2.0

Inevitable End - Usually this will just be a slow kill spell, but occasionally if you put it on a bomb, they’ll sacrifice other things just to keep that alive. It’s conditional removal, but still removal. 2.5

Minion’s Return - This being an Enchantment-Matters set makes me like this a lot more than I usually do, and there’s potential for combos with Hateful Eidolon & some of the White recursion. 2.5

Tymaret, Chosen from Death - Difficult to cast on curve, but a reasonable drop at any time. Great hate for Escape decks, but remember, you can’t exile an Escape card once they’ve declared they’re casting it. 2.5

Underworld Dreams - Save it for Constructed. 1.0

Blood Aspirant - In the dedicated R/B Sacrifice deck, this could be a thing, but it starts too puny and the expense is pretty high. 2.0

Dreamshaper Shaman - I get it, but this honestly feels more like a casual Commander card than something for Limited. For Limited, it’s mostly a big body. 2.0

Escape Velocity - This again strikes me more as something for Constructed, something a deck like Izzet Drakes might like. For Limited, it’s cute, but not particularly great. 1.5

Furious Rise - The upside on this is pretty great in the dedicated Ferocious deck. I’d give it a go. 2.5

Heroes of the Revel - Decent stats for the cost, and another Heroic enabler. Good in the archetype, mediocre elsewhere. 2.5

Impending Doom - The name of this card really doesn’t match the flavor, but whatever. It’s a solid Aura for aggressive decks, good in the Heroic build, but a liability if you’re not wanting to attack. 2.0

Skophos Maze-Warden - Ignore the wall of text, this is a 3/4 for 4 with the “Flowstone” ability. Which is pretty solid on its own. If you get the maze, it’s cute, but definitely not necessary to play this. 2.5

The Triumph of Anax - This is one of the hardest cards to evaluate in the whole set. My hunch is it will often not work out quite the way you hope, and one or more chapters will end up getting wasted to removal or by not having good targets. I’m starting pessimistic until I see otherwise. 1.5

Underworld Fires - Can be a way to clean up stragglers after combat, and will be good against decks like Heroic go-wide. There’s potential, but I might start it as a sideboard pick until the format shakes out. 2.0

The Binding of the Titans - This card takes a while to do much useful, but it gets there, and it’s a pretty cheap inclusion. Some decks will want it. 2.5

Hydra’s Growth - This can absolutely run away with the game if left unchecked, so I’d generally run it in G/W Auras or decks with heavy Constellation or Heroic triggers. But it is risky until about 3 turns in, so take it with a grain of salt. 2.5

Klothys’s Design - Oh, how much better this would be if it granted Trample. As is, it’s a reasonable top-end finisher, but some decks will find it dead more often than not. 2.0

Mystic Repeal - Enough Enchantments are running around for this to consistently have targets, and it avoids enabling Escape as well. I’d rather have a Return to Nature for flexibility, but this will do in a pinch. 2.0

Nessian Hornbeetle - I like this little guy as a payoff for the Ferocious deck, and there’s virtually no downside to including him. 3.0

Nessian Wanderer - A two drop that can smooth a land-light hand is reasonable, but you could skip it and probably not notice. 2.0

Setessan Petitioner - You’re rarely going to gain more than around 4 life with this, but once you get above about that point, this starts getting good. If you manage to draft mono-Green, I’d slam this, but in most 2-color decks it’s pretty replaceable. 2.0

Wolfwillow Haven - There’s not much need to ramp in this format, but if you’re heavy Green, it can do work for both Devotion and casting double & triple Green casting costs. The ability is too costly to get excited about, though at least it feeds itself. I’d generally skip this except maybe in mono Green with a good Devotion payoff. 1.5

Mirror Shield - Mostly a flavor win, I don’t see lots of reason for this in the format. Side it in against the all Moss Viper deck. You could also side it in against control decks to hedge against removal. 1.5

Soul-Guide Lantern - This will be a brutal sideboard against the heavy Escape deck, but that’s mainly where I see it. 1.5

Field of Ruin - Save it for Constructed. Nothing in this format is worth destroying aside from maayyybe Labyrinth of Skophos. 0.5

That’s it for the Uncommons. Very few dead picks, lots of good options and a few fun buildarounds. Overall, a good looking set, I think. Up next, the Rares & Mythics!

#MtG #theros beyond death

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housebeleren · 4 years

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Random Commander Challenge: Arjun, the Shifting Flame

The last monthly deck I built before the pandemic, Arjun the Shifting Flame is one I had considered many times. It’s an interesting design in a vacuum, putting Mindmoil on a creature, but Red/Blue decks so often go in a wheels direction, it didn’t feel all that innovative to do exactly that. That said, it is effective, and it’s an archetype that has continued to get support in recent years, as more cantrips, card draw spells, and wheels are printed in nearly every set. So, with that in mind, I decided to go for it.

Art: Willian Murai

Theme

As mentioned, Red/Blue wheels isn’t exactly innovative, but it’s a strong archetype with tons of support, and Arjun undeniably pushes that direction. For this deck, in trying to build something flavorful and in a 75% power range, the trick wouldn’t be what cards to include, since there are so many. The real challenge would be what cards not to include. So to do that, I put a couple of guardrails on myself.

First, I wanted the deck to really feel “sphinxlike”. By that, I mean I wanted the cards to evoke the theme. So, if I can include a cantrip like Omen, I’m going to do so over a card like Shimmer of Possibility. Both are two mana Blue cantrips, but Omen is so flavorful that it makes the cut where the other doesn’t.

Second, I decided to make this a “wheels for me” deck, and explicitly not a “wheels for everyone” deck. And the main reason to do that was that I didn’t want to make this a deck that ran lines of play like “Narset, Parter of Veils. Wheel of Fortune. Pass.” That’s such a miserable way to win with this type of deck that I just didn’t want to go there. So, with just a couple exceptions, I kept the wheels to myself, which meant mostly sticking to cantrips, and letting Arjun do the heavy lifting for me.

Card Groups

Cantrips & Draw - This is the big one. This deck wants a pile of cheap cantrips and card draw spells. I included such 24 Instants & Sorceries in my build, the vast majority being one and two drops. And that’s on top of other, more expensive card draw options. You really want to churn through this deck rapidly, and cantrips are the best way to do this. Pick your favorites, but a few noteworthy inclusions I like are Faithless Looting, Desperate Ravings, and Radical Idea (since they all work twice), Fists of Flame (since it’s also a potential win-con), Obsessive Search (since you can discard it to some of your other spells & cast it off Madness), and Gitaxian Probe (since it’s free).

Enablers - These are cards that help you out with your theme, and there are three categories in this build. One are effects that make casting Instants & Sorceries cheaper, which allows you to cast more in one turn. Baral, Chief of Compliance & Goblin Electromancer are good examples here. The second are triggered effects that help you draw extra cards, which is helpful since several of the cantrips don’t actually leave you up a card, but just break even. Alhammarret’s Archive & Jorin En, Ruin Diver are two of my favorites for this group. And the third category are copy effects, that let you double up your spells, such as Expansion/Explosion and Increasing Vengeance. These are useful if you need an extra boost, and can also be combined for an unexpected tertiary win condition with Ral, Storm Conduit.

Ramp - Arjun is a 6 drop who doesn’t do anything until you can drop more mana, and this deck wants to win by casting a large number of spells in one turn (usually after you untap with Arjun). So you need a lot of ramp. Mana rocks are your general best bet, and you’ll want a few that can tap for double mana, as well as some that can be traded in for cards later, like Mind Stone & Commander’s Sphere. A few rituals are also helpful for the endgame, so pick your favorites and add them in.

Disruption - You’ll want a touch of disruption to ensure your win isn’t shut down. Mainly, this will be in the form of counterspells. Given the mana hungry nature of the deck, “free” counters like Force of Will, Force of Negation, Pact of Negation, and Fierce Guardianship are all good choices, but they’re not exactly budget. Replace them with cheap counters like Swan Song, Negate, & Arcane Denial as needed. Chaos Warp, Cyclonic Rift, and other ways to turn off hate cards are essential as well. Finally, my other favorite card for this deck is Possibility Storm, which works a lot as proactive disruption. Arjun doesn’t really care what he’s casting, just that something gets cast so he can keep on wheeling. But it’ll disrupt most of your opponent’s carefully laid plans, thwarting their wins and their removal, while letting your plans run unaffected. All you need is Arjun and one win condition out, and Possibility Storm will do work.

Win Conditions - This is the fun part. There are so many ways to win with an Arjun deck. The best and most obvious are cards like Niv-Mizzet, Parun, The Locust God, and Psychosis Crawler, all of which trigger on card draws, and can win in a single turn if given a chance. All of them go in the deck. Niv-Mizzet, Parun is a particular fun combo with Curiosity or Ophidian Eye, letting you burn your opponents directly or allowing you to draw your entire deck, setting you up for a win using Laboratory Maniac, Thassa’s Oracle, or Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, so throw whichever of those three you have into the pile as well. I also included two milling win conditions with Psychic Corrosion & Sphinx’s Tutelage, which feel appropriate given the theme, but be sure to use them judiciously so you don’t accidentally give more gas to graveyard decks.

In addition to these main groups, there are some staple cards for the archetype that are worth including. Talrand is always good in a spell heavy deck and can lead to a slower win. Thousand-Year Storm is costly, but will definitely win you the game if you untap with it and Arjun both on board. Ral, Storm Conduit is all-around useful and can unexpectedly win with two copy spells in hand. And one or two ways to retrieve Instants & Sorceries from your graveyard can also be useful, so pick your favorite staples and go to town. You might opt for some Boots/Greaves style protection for Arjun if that appeals to you, or you can just stick with counterspells.

Play Style

This deck is pretty linear, but isn’t necessarily simple to pilot. Your goal is to untap with Arjun plus one of your main win conditions on board, then rip through your deck as much as you can using cheap cantrips & letting Arjun’s ability just sprint through as many cards as possible.

The first few turns, you’ll just want to ramp as much as you can. Play some mana rocks and keep a low profile. This deck wants to not be perceived as a threat for as long as possible. Cards like Goblin Electromancer are great here, because they’re good setup but are non-threatening.

Once you get to the 6+ mana range, start looking for opportunities to resolve your a win condition (Niv-Mizzet, The Locust God, Psychosis Crawler, etc) or Arjun, ensuring you can protect your investment once it’s down. Maybe this means getting to 8 mana so you can hold up a counterspell, maybe it means digging for Lightning Greaves first, or maybe it means stalling as your enemies use their disruption on each other. This is where it’s critically important to read the table and try to anticipate disruption your opponents may throw at you.

Hopefully your enemies have spent their removal & disruption on other players coming out the gate faster than you, so you can safely land a win con or two and get Arjun on the table. Once you’re there, go to town with cantrips and cheap spells, and watch your opponents cry. Hopefully. That’s the goal.

Conclusion

All told, I had a blast with Arjun. The thing that will almost certainly frustrate you is not having enough mana to do what you need, given how expensive of a commander it is, plus the fact that most of your best win conditions are equally as expensive. But, with enough mana rocks in the build, it should be doable. And when it goes off, it goes off with a bang.

As for budget, there are a few pieces you definitely need to make it work, but the good news is most of them are replaceable and only a few of them are in the $10-$20 range. (The Locust God & Alhammaret’s Archive come to mind.) Of course, you can trick it out with the super expensive free counterspells, which are excellent here, but you can also make do with the cheaper counterspells and a little patience. On my build, I only spent a little over $10 on cards I didn’t already have spare copies of, which is about the best I’ve ever done in this series. Overall, I think it’s definitely possible to make a very fun Arjun deck at a reasonable price.

Of course, you can always go the way of Arjun wheels for the whole table, in which case you’re looking at a much more expensive build. For that much meaner build, you’ll want Narset, Parter of Veils & numerous other cards in the $5-$20 range like Teferi’s Puzzle Box, Echo of Eons, Reforge the Soul, Day’s Undoing, etc, so it’ll be harder to assemble that build on a budget. And of course, you could always add extra turn spells to the mix just to jack the price up even higher.

But on the whole, no matter what your budget, I think there’s an Arjun deck out there for every price point, and I love that. I won 1 out of 4 games played with the deck, so it’s about in-line with most of these builds I’ve done so far. In other words, a pretty good success in my book.

#MtG #mtg commander

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housebeleren · 4 years

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Love this.

Jace Beleren, Masculinity, and the Trans Experience

(This post is a Twitter thread I wrote in response to a Goblin Lore podcast episode called “Jace Beleren and Toxic Masculinity”.)

I feel I have a unique perspective on this topic as a trans man. Trans man Jace isn’t my headcanon, but it’s an interpretation I love. He’s my favorite character of all time, and as a trans man, I feel like reading Jace’s flaws as toxic masculinity isn’t quite right.

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housebeleren · 4 years

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Random Commander Challenge: Kamahl, Pit Fighter

Getting back to my random commander decks, this is a deck I built and played with back in February. Mono Red really isn’t my thing, but apparently the randomizer at EDHRec disagreed with me, because it gave me two back-to-back. This time, it’s Kamahl, Pit Fighter.

Hoo, boy...

Art: Kev Walker

Theme

Kamahl is a tough one. As a 6 drop with 1 toughness, it’s all too easy for him to die before getting any damage through, even with Haste. It’s tempting to try for Voltron and go all-in Commander damage, but he’s just so expensive and flimsy for that to work reliably.

That said, there are a few possible directions here. I briefly considered “Tim” tribal (creatures that tap for damage), but a lot of those cards have the same problem as Kamahl does, so I didn’t think it was really enough. What I ultimately decided on was to just go big damage, with lots of damage doublers, double strike, and extra combats to push through unexpected wins. The good news is a few pingers (Tims) play nicely with the double damage theme, so I was able to keep some of them in.

The deck came together pretty easily from there. It certainly wasn’t great, but it was fun and actually won a game, so it definitely could’ve been worse.

Card Groups

Ramp - The first thing this deck needs is ramp. Many of the cards that actually win shit are expensive, so you want to be able to power them out before turn fifty or whatever. Make sure the deck has a good suite of mana rocks. At least 8 I would say. The good news is that the deck is monocolor, so cards that produce colorless mana are just fine.

Damage Increasers - This is the meat of the deck. First up, you have your general damage pumps: Furnace of Rath, Dictate of the Twin Gods, Gratuitous Violence are the obvious ones (God I wish Fiery Emancipation had been printed at this point.), but I also included Torbran, Thane of Red Fell, Akki Lavarunner, Embermaw Hellion, and Jaya, Venerated Firemage for incremental increase. You can also throw in one-offs like The Flame of Keld and Overblaze for single big turns.

Combat Doublers - In addition to upping the damage itself, you can double combats and double strikes very easily in these colors. I included Combat Celebrant, Hellkite Charger, Aggravated Assault, Relentless Assault, and Savage Beating. Additionally, some Equipment & Auras like Fireshrieker and Dragon Grip are decent. I also included a bunch of swords (Feast & Famine, Light & Shadow, Blackblade Reforged, Sword of Vengeance, Sword of the Paruns all made it, but you can pick & choose based on budget and play style.) Basically, lots of stuff to make your commander hit hard.

Commander Protection - Given how expensive Kamahl is, you want to be able to protect him once he’s down. Darksteel Plate and Hammer of Nazahn are fantastic in this deck, and make him a very real threat that’s quite hard to deal with. Also, First Strike is really helpful, since it makes him difficult to block, particularly if his power is increased. They’re not great, but I threw Claws of Valakut and Kamahl’s Desire (also a flavor win!) to help on that front. And I decided to get a bit funky with Scythe of the Wretched and Kusari-Gama, two lesser known cards with the intent to make him difficult to block effectively.

Pingers (Tims) - I wanted to pay tribute to Kamahl’s pinging ability by including a few additional pingers as well. As a massive flavor win, Jeska, Warrior Adept happens to be a pinger herself, so that was an auto-include. Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh is a cute inclusion that can turn into a consistent threat if allowed to transform. Goblin Sharpshooter is phenomenal anti-token tech. And Heartless Hidetsugu is a mega-pinger that also happens to combo really well with damage doublers (Gratuitous Violence in particular). I rounded out this group with Cinder Pyromancer and a few similar incremental damagers like Immolation Shaman, Scab-Clan Berserker, Glint-Horn Buccaneer, Hellrider, and Tectonic Giant.

Good Stuff - Lastly, there are some cards you just want to have in a deck like this. Akroma, Angel of Fury is kinda a pet card for me, and it has a loose tie-in with the Onslaught storyline. Etali, Primal Storm is just great in any mono-Red deck, so that went right in, along with his smaller buddy Grenzo, Havoc Raiser. Stigma Lasher is excellent and can utterly shut down some strategies with no way to undo it, and Neheb, the Eternal can generate huge mana for you for a big Comet Storm or similar effect as an alternate win condition. Lastly, I would always include Disrupt Decorum in any damage-focused Red deck, just to clear the path, and Insurrection is a win con in itself that definitely earns its place here.

Play Style

The nice thing is, this deck is pretty straightforward. If you have early plays like Stigma Lasher, Grenzo, Havoc Raiser, or Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh, get those out early to start generating advantage while your opponents are getting set up. Otherwise, you’ll probably spend the first few turns just ramping.

Once you have some mana, you can start laying down your damage increasing effects, and setting up cards that you want to go off in a turn or two, like Heartless Hidetsugu, Aggravated Assault, and the like. If you have a window to land Kamahl and get him suited up with Darksteel Plate, go ahead and do it, but be really cautious of tapping out to play him without either slamming down a ton of damage on the same turn or having that protection ready to go, because he very likely will not survive a full turn cycle around the table.

Then just beat face. That’s really it. If you’re lucky, you’ll have set up a little combo like Heartless Hidetsugu & Gratuitous Violence that can take out the table in close to one go, or you’ll be able to get some damage through with Neheb on the table to generate a pile of mana for Comet Storm. (If you want to push this direction with the build, you can throw in some rituals like Mana Geyser & the like and make the Comet Storm win the main push, but I didn’t opt for that direction.)

You’ll also sometimes sneak out wins with cards like Etali, Primal Storm that just run away with the game through sheer luck, and that’s fine, henny. Mono Red can’t be picky. Take the wins where you can get them. I put Obsidian Fireheart in my build as well, because why not? Sometimes early starts with those cards end up running away with things, and I’ll take it and not complain.

Conclusion

All told, I had a surprisingly good time playing this deck, despite how inherently janky it is. I definitely did not follow my own advice with how much ramp the deck needs, and I struggled in a few games. That said, I did win one game (out of 4 played), and it was all down to raw damage whittling my opponents down at first, then finishing them off with a Comet Storm, so apparently it does sometimes work! (Also, ruining a White player’s life with an early Stigma Lasher hit is such deliciousness.)

I do feel like the deck can be built reasonably well on a budget, but a few cards are annoyingly expensive in that $5-$20 range, so it adds up fast. (Hammer of Nazahn, Darksteel Plate, and Insurrection are particularly irritating in this point.) But you can definitely build it without the expensive swords and the mana base is super affordable. I went a bit over my ideal $25 purchase budget, since I needed the Insurrection and a few of the damage doublers I didn’t already have, but the good news is most of the cards in here that aren’t cheap are ones you’ll use again.

If you’re looking for something unique and mono-Red is your jam, I can say that you definitely could do worse than Kamahl. There are some fun flavor wins you can throw in from the Onslaught era, and it’s a great deck to go old-border style with, if that’s an aesthetic that brings you joy. And the good news is, it’s a deck you can remix with just a few quick swaps into a large number of other Red builds, so if you’d prefer to run a similar concept with Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh or Torbran, Thane of Red Fell, you can do that easily.

Whatever you do, remember to have fun, and don’t take it too seriously, especially these days. I’ll be back with my next random commander deck soon.

#MtG #edh

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housebeleren · 4 years

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Called It

A story in GIFs.

I literally just posted my wish list for Double Masters and what’s the first thing they preview? That’s right, the Reflection Cycle. Who called it?

Wait what?

They’re only printing two cards in the cycle? And not either of the two that are prohibitively expensive?

For fuck’s sake. It’s gonna be like that, isn’t it?

I suppose I can hope that they’re going to end up previewing the other three, and this is just some “classic” misdirection. HA haha ha ha! HA!

At least they got new art so we don’t have two things to be mad about. Though that would be oh, so on theme.

#MtG #double masters

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housebeleren · 4 years

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My Double Masters Wishlist

Before jumping in to this topic, I’ve decided to make some changes to what I post here. I won’t be posting Limited card reviews or format reviews anymore. Other sites & professional content creators do that already, and they do it better. Plus, it takes up a huge amount of time that ultimately, I don’t particularly enjoy. Instead, I’ll try to post more things that are fun and personal to me.

With that in mind, Double Masters previews begin soon. Instead of reviewing it, I thought it would be more fun to post a wishlist of cards I hope to see printed. Obviously, we know a few already, like Doubling Season (a slam dunk), and Mana Crypt (A chase card that needs reprints anyway). But here is the rest of my wishlist:

The Slam Dunks

Of all the cards that could possibly be reprinted, I can’t imagine we won’t see at least one of the Reflection cycle. Three of them haven’t been printed in a over a decade, and the most expensive one (Mana Reflection) is pushing $50. These cards are Commander favorites, and I’d love to see the whole cycle printed in this set. Hopefully if they do include this cycle (or some number of them), they’ll have already contracted new artwork, but given the timeline, I won’t bank on it.

I am constantly amazed at this card’s ability to be expensive. But, as far as iconic creature types go, this is one of the best that fits the “double” theme. I have a strong feeling we’ll see it.

Savage Beating hasn’t been reprinted in forever, and this is not just a double, it’s a double-double! You double your damage, double your combats, or double both! It’s a card that shouldn’t be as expensive as it is, and would be a super fun inclusion.

It really doesn’t feel like it’s been that long since Origins, but it’s been 5 years now, and this card keeps creeping up there. I’d really like for this card to always be in the $10 range, and a reprint here would get it back there. Again, it’s also a double double. Double your card draw, double your lifegain. Win/win!

This is the second Entwine card on this list, and for good reason. But again, this card has so many perfect “double” elements going on, I really think it should be in the set. It gets 2 creatures, lets you put 2 creatures from your hand into play, lets you choose both options, and even costs 2 to Entwine. It’s a slam dunk card and would be a super fun inclusion.

This card is only a few years old, and it’s already iconic, and a Commander staple, to boot. This is a card that should see reprint soon, to keep the price low and accessible. And even with a reprint, it would still be a few bucks, so it wouldn’t be a total junk rare.

I’ll end this section with the card I’m probably actually most hopeful for, Rings of Brighthearth. This card has evaded reprint for so long, and Double Masters is quite possibly the most perfect product for it to finally make an appearance. If Rings isn’t here, the price will quickly grow even further out of hand (it’s nearly $50 now). Since it hasn’t been printed in over a decade, a lot of the price in this card is just due to scarcity, and it will drop quite satisfactorily once reprinted. This means they really should rip the bandage off now. Here’s hoping.

Huh, lots of Artifacts out there.

The Stretches

Ha ha, it’s a stretch. Stupidity aside, this card is a super unique effect that has warranted inclusion in some of my more ridiculous EDH decks. (casting this with Rebound in my Taigam, Ojutai Master deck is... a nice way to never get invited back to game night.) It’s less of a slam dunk, since it’s the type of card that doesn’t play well in Limited, and so they’d likely have to move it up to Mythic, which would take up one of the few coveted chase spots. They could conceivably put any extra turn spell here, since that’s “doubling your turn”.

This card is a weird one, because it comes down early, but you have to have 6 mana in your mana pool to break even on its ability. That said, it’s a surprisingly expensive card, and there are some Commanders that want it (Kruphix & OG Omnath come to mind). It would definitely be an interesting choice.

I have no stake in the Modern debate about whether this card should stay banned. All I know is that it’s a fun card and is still over $15 despite being banned in the main format that would use it. An unban would cause the price to spike rapidly, so maybe they’re waiting for a convenient place to reprint it before they do so? Either way, it’s a super fun card and could enable some super cute draft combos. But probably a stretch unless an unban is planned.

It’s simple, it’s cheap, and it’s a card that will creep back up to $10 in not too long. Personally, I’d love for this card to be reprinted in Standard, but they’ve been giving this effect to Red or Red/Blue more recently. Not a high priority, but definitely a card I’d consider.

Maybe this one should be a slam dunk, but it’s borderline. Either way, it’s a card that’s WAY too expensive, hasn’t been reprinted in years, and fits the theme of the set. I mean, he’s literally doubled in the art. I’d be stoked to see Riku make an appearance (or two).

I’m calling this a stretch, not because it wouldn’t make sense from a price/reprint standpoint, but thematically. Still, I think the idea of “reflecting” isn’t too far away from the “double” idea, and this is a land that needs a reprint sooner rather than later. Personally, I think this should be in just about every annual Commander release, but what do I know?

The only reason I’m putting Bramble Sovereign on the “stretch” list is because Battlebond really wasn’t that long ago. But this is a great card that’s very thematically appropriate, and as quickly become one of the more expensive cards from the set.

Flavor Wins

These are some cards that aren’t going to be “exciting” from a reprint perspective, but would be great flavor wins for the set.

Starting here. Seriously, the Brothers Yamazaki would be an incredibly flavorful inclusion, particularly if they show up at twice the frequency at Uncommon, so you could really draft multiple copies more often. The one weird thing is they’d probably have to errata the middle ability to say “if you control exactly two...” to avoid situations where you control 2 copies, then your opponent plays one and suddenly the legend rule applies to them again. But still, I think it would be worth it.

Vorel has been reprinted enough times he’s definitely not an exciting inclusion, but he’s kinda the poster child for Legendary Creatures that double things. I can’t imagine there won’t be a counters sub-theme in the limited environment, and Vorel would be a perfect Rare to draft for that purpose.

In the same vein, I would be shocked if we didn’t see Deepglow Skate make an appearance. Fortunately for us, Wizards has been reprinting this card enough to keep the price reasonable, which is great. So why not keep up the good work and print it again here? It’ll be a fun Rare for draft and it’ll keep that price down where it should be.

This card isn’t particularly exciting, and I bet nobody is “hoping” to see it, but there are SO. MANY. TWOs on this card. You flip 2 coins, get a bonus when both coins match, and the bonuses are Double Strike (x2 damage) or Menace (requires 2 or more blockers). Plus, he has Two in his name and all numbers on the card are multiples of two. An absolute flavor win.

It’s kinda a weird pick, but I like ending on weird picks. This land is so unique, and I think it would be a really fun inclusion. They should probably downshift it to Rare if they want to reprint it here, otherwise this would be a disappointing Mythic. But it would be a fun Rare to open up in the set, and it’s just getting to the age that the price will start creeping up if it isn’t printed soon.

So that’s it. Those are the cards on my initial list. I’m sure I missed some, and there are tons of little cards that are obviously great I didn’t bother including. What’s on your wish list?

#double masters #MtG

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housebeleren · 4 years

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Theros Beyond Death Limited: Bomb Rares

Last but definitely not least, here are the Rares & Mythics for Theros Beyond Death. Hope you have some of these in your Sealed pool for prerelease, because these are the cards that can push your deck over the top. Let’s knock this out!

White

I have this pegged as the best White Rare in the set, for Limited. On its own, its a massive threat that will be just about impossible to race, and it runs away with the game really quickly. Your opponent will need immediate removal for this, or it’s going to be very hard to lose. 4.5/5

We play 5 mana removal all the time in Limited, and while it’s never exciting, it gets the job done. But this one comes with extra value attached, as reanimating your best dead threat (with an extra counter, no less), is something we also pay 5 mana for. Chapter 2 will mostly not do anything, but this is still a pretty clear 2-for-1, and you’ll basically always play it. 4.0/5

Elspeth, like most Planeswalkers, is powerful, and you should definitely play her. That said, this Elspeth seems more bonkers in Constructed. In Limited, the most likely line of play will be creating two tokens, then using her -1 the next few turns in a row to push damage through. That’s good, but it makes her more akin to History of Benalia than anything else, a card that’s great, but not unbeatable. In Constructed, she’ll be an important source of inevitability. 4.0/5

The Gods are all pretty much bombs. Even if he never becomes a creature himself, he’s still going to make racing incredibly difficult for your opponent, as you keep gaining life and building up your creatures. Which, weirdly, makes him splashable, though he’s obviously way stronger in a heavy White deck. 4.5/5

It’s been a long time since we’ve had an easy to cast board wipe at 4 mana. Your opponent is slightly more likely to get a card draw off of it, but that’s pretty negligible because it shouldn’t be hard to set yourself up for a situation where you can easily turn this into a 3-for-1 or greater. It gets less valuable post-board once your opponent knows it’s there, so be aware of that. But you can bet lots of Game 1s will be decided by this 4.0/5

White, as per usual, has some great bombs at Rare. No surprises when it comes to the threats, but the presence of a 4 mana sweeper is a very welcome change and will definitely impact the Limited format.

Blue

Yes, it costs a lot, but this card will make people scoop when it comes down. It just... does everything Blue wants to do to end the game. You get a giant Monster that pretty much can’t be removed, then you get two turns of unfettered attacks with it. If they’re still alive after that, you get to take their best thing permanently. 7 mana is a lot, but you can get there in most games, just make sure you have ways to stall, and once you get here, this card will singlehandedly take care of the rest. 5.0/5

This is pretty bonkers. You might as well just keep one land permanently tapped for this, since it’s pretty much always correct to pay, even at the expense of slowing yourself down a bit. There will be some games where this comes down on turn three and runs away with the game all by itself. Otherwise, it will at least eat a removal spell. It demands action from your opponent, and that’s exactly what I like in my Rares. 4.5/5

Thassa is less busted than Heliod, but still does a lot. She can retrigger ETBs (including Constellation), and provide pseudo-Vigilance for one creature a turn. She also completely invalidates most Enchantment-based removal (Banishing Light excepted), and turns into a really potent mana sink in the late game. If you get your devotion up, she’s a massive threat in and of herself. She’s less good if you’re not deep on devotion, but still worth including in most decks. 4.0/5

Thryx is likely going to be the largest threat in the air, and he comes down at the end of an opponent’s turn, so you’re usually going to get a turn to swing with him before he’s removed. He also helps ramp your bigger spells, and incidentally hates on Blue control, which is cute. But mainly, he’s a big flier. 4.0/5

The ceiling on Wavebreak Hippocamp is really, really high. If you have lots of Instants & Flash, it’s an engine that will bury your opponent in card advantage really fast. The rating I’m giving assumes you get to draw one card off of it. In a deck built to use it, it goes up a half or full point. In a deck with only one or two cards that can trigger it, it goes down. 3.5/5

Well, Blue got some bombs, didn’t it? I like how many of these cards are generically pretty solid, but become incredible in the right build. Except Kiora Bests the Sea God, which is just ridiculous in any deck.

Black

The cleanest removal for just about any threat in the game, and with Surveil 1 tacked on for enabling Escape. You should always run this. 4.0/5

I honestly don’t know how you’re losing if you play Erebos. The life loss isn’t insignificant, but it ensures you’ll bury your opponent in card advantage with every trade. He’s not great if you’re already super behind, but assuming you cast him when you’re at parity, he should help you win very quickly. 4.5/5

Flexible Instant-removal that doubles as Escape hate? I’ll take it. 4.0/5

This is a nonbo with Escape, but it’s so good on its own it doesn’t matter. First of all, it’s a 4/4 flier for 4 mana, which is great. That alone would be one of the best cards in your deck. But getting copies of every creature that dies, even if they’re 1/1s, is just insane. You get to retrigger any ETB, and they have all abilities they originally had. I expect this to be very good. 4.5/5

Woe Strider is a recursive threat that gets bigger when it comes back, and it basically always gets a Scry 1 tacked on to it. Also, the sacrifice ability doesn’t cost mana, which is phenomenal, so you can turn any other creature death into a free Scry. 4.0/5

Black’s Rares seem absolutely nuts. Even some of the others I didn’t pick are still great, so starting your pool with one or more of these is a great place to be.

Red

I suspect a lot of people won’t realize how good this will be. After a few turns, your opponent will have little to no board, while you will have been able to continue building up. It’s a massive tempo win, and can even help you come back from behind, which is a rare thing for Red. 4.0/5

I can’t overstate how much card advantage this card represents. Yes, a 4/2 is small for a 5 drop, but it shouldn’t be hard to mostly empty your hand before you cast this, and net 2-3 cards right away. It will pretty easily trade with something, and then represents more threat in the graveyard, even if the cost is steep. It’s even a great topdeck. I suspect this will be great, even if it’s even better for Constructed. 4.0/5

The base stats alone are pretty awesome, but the fact that this has a very reasonable Escape cost and comes back bigger makes it even better. This will be a persistent and annoying threat for your opponents. 4.0/5

I actually don’t think Purphoros is all that bonkers in Limited. His ability is much more a plant for Constructed magic, so in Limited he’s mainly to be evaluated assuming you get devotion going. In that case, he’s still good, but not insane value on his own the way some of the other gods are. 3.5/5

I mean, that’ll do. This can take down nearly anything, and if you’re ahead in the game, you can just throw out a beater to threaten their life total. 4.0/5

Tectonic Giant seems great. While the stats are a bit anemic on their own, it’ll chuck a Lava Spike or draw you a card if your opponent tries to remove it, and if you can safely swing, the value is going to be nuts. Combat tricks go way up with this, since your opponent will always try to trade for it. 4.0/5

Red doesn’t have any completely unbeatable bombs, but the average Rare is really great, so I don’t think it’s much of a problem. Seems very strong.

Green

I love getting Legendaries of somewhat atypical tribes like this. A 3/5 with Reach would be playable for 4 mana anyway, but Arasta spawns babies every time your opponent casts an Instant or Sorcery. Sometimes it won’t come up much, and the plethora of Enchantment removal in this set makes it worse than it would be in other formats. Still, it’s a pretty strong hoser against certain decks that’s maindeckable, and that’s a good place to be. 3.5/5

If all the modes occurred at once, this would be a 4/4 creature that draws two cards on ETB, which is INSANE. Spreading it out over 3 turns (the fourth chapter is mostly flavor) gives your opponent more opportunity to deal with it, but there are going to be games where it just goes off as planned, and those games are going to be really, really good. 4.0/5

Auras normally have the issue of being easy 2-for-1s, but this cleverly gets around that by compensating you with two bodies when the creature dies. This will give you a massive swing when it comes down. It’s not a bomb, but I mention it because there will be people who ignore it simply because it’s an Aura, and this one is definitely worth playing. 3.5/5

Nylea is probably second to Heliod when it comes to Limited potential. Green loves permanents and has lots with double & triple mana costs, so getting her active will be easier than in some other colors. But her mana sink is going to be absolutely incredible in the late game, and should make wins easy if you don’t get overwhelmed too early. I’d basically always run her. 4.0/5

It only takes one Enchantment to make Setessan Champion great, and in a deck built around the theme, she’ll be an unstoppable engine. Pick highly. 4.0/5

Green surprisingly doesn’t have any crazy bomb Rares, at least from what I can tell. But it makes up for it with above average Commons & Uncommons, so Green decks are likely to be very consistent and powerful.

Multicolor & Colorless

This should come as no surprise. Ashiok starts with a pile of loyalty, and churns out surprisingly big creatures to protect themself, and yes I know that’s not a word (”technically”). Having Recoil on the -3 is phenomenal as well, and deals with basically any permanent (or Enchantment-based removal) very effectively. The Ultimate doesn’t take long to get to, and once you do, I like that it counts not only cards exiled by Ashiok, but also any they’ve exiled with Escape as well. Very flavorful and a clear bomb. 4.5/5

The casting cost is a challenge, to be sure, but this Sphinx is a near-perfect Control finisher. It’s big, keeps your life total high, blocks all but the biggest of threats, and is nigh-impossible to kill with targeted removal. Once you untap with it, the card draw keeps you ahead. I’m starting very high on this, assuming you’re in the color pair, since this is not very splashable. 4.5/5

Speaking of not splashable, Haktos here is completely unplayable outside of Red/White. That said, if you’re in the colors, he’s a massive threat that’s incredibly hard to deal with. Sometimes, he’ll trade down and that will be a feel bad. But other times, he’ll be unblockable and unkillable, and those times will be incredibly frustrating for your opponent. I’d give him a try. 3.5/5

Klothys may actually be the best god for Limited, no joke. Yes, the Devotion threshold is higher, but she comes down early and the ability is fuego. She's a clock in and of herself while keeping your life total nicely buffered, and will occasionally help you ramp out a threat ahead of schedule. She’s also incidental Escape hate, and that is absolutely relevant. I highly recommend playing Klothys if you open her. 4.5/5

I absolutely love that the designs for the Titans, though I very much wish there were three of them. Kroxa doesn’t do a ton at 2 mana, but that’s just setup. Once it Escapes, it’s absolutely brutal, and even just the threat of this sistting in your graveyard could cause your opponents to try to play around it, which is a great place to be. 4.5/5

Polukranos was a bomb the first time around on Theros, and it’s a bomb again this time. A 4 mana 6/6 is an absolute monster, but it’s ridiculous coming back as a 12/12. Yes, the counters go away when damaged, but this will just eat up whatever you want of the opponent’s board, then come back to do it all over again. The value here is insane, and will dominate Limited games. 5.0/5

Uro is even better than Kroxa. For 3 mana, you get a ramp spell, and then it sits in wait for the moment of Escape. It’s not hard to imagine this being a 3-for-1 or even better. It’s not unbeatable, but it’s pretty insane value. 4.5/5

Shadowspear asks very little, and gives so much. The activated ability won’t come up all that often, but when it does, it will feel so good (destroying gods is always fun). But mainly, it’s just a super-efficient way to power up your creatures and make racing a nightmare for your opponent. 4.0/5

The Rest of the Rares

Eidolon of Obstruction - This is a 2/1 with First Strike for 2. That’s solid in any deck, even if the Planeswalker text is ornamental. 2.5

Heliod’s Intervention - I wouldn’t generally run it for the lifegain alone, but it can gain a pile of life, which in some situations is almost a Time Walk. But being able to snipe lots of Enchantments is completely worth it in a format full of them, and makes this easily maindeckable. I’d be prepared to bump this rating up once the format shakes out. 3.5

Idyllic Tutor - You want at least 2 other Rares worth tutoring for to bother with this. Mostly save it for Constructed. 1.0

Taranika, Akroan Veteran - This is pretty solid. It upgrades your weakest dork to a 4/4 on attack, and is on-curve for 3 mana anyway. 3.5

Ashiok’s Erasure - Cute, but I’d rather just have Cancel most of the time. This is more for Constructed. 1.5

Protean Thaumaturge - Cute, but I’m always wary of cards that do literally nothing on their own. If you have lots of good Enchantment creatures, this gets better, but I’m not sold on its own. 1.5

Thassa’s Intervention - This strikes me as much better in Constructed, but the flexibility to hold it up as an answer then draw cards if there’s nothing worth countering makes it playable. 2.5

Thassa’s Oracle - A 2 drop that smooths your draws is fine by me, but you do want to be in heavy Blue before you play this. The win conditoin will happen every now and then, and there probably is a busted self-mill deck around this if you first pick it. 2.5

Aphemia, the Cacaphony - This is definitely playable on its own as a 2/1 flier for 2, but as soon as you can get some Enchantments in your Graveyard, the value goes way up. It dies to basically every piece of removal in the set, so I’m not super high on it, but the ceiling is high. 3.5

Gravebreaker Lamia - I actually like this quite a bit. I probably wouldn’t run Entomb in any Limited deck (except maybe Ultimate Masters draft), but Entomb stapled to a 4/4 Lifelink Creature is pretty sweet, and this really helps fuel the Escape deck. 3.5

Treacherous Blessing - Three cards for 3 mana is great, but the drawback is real. I’d mostly pass on this unless you have lots of lifegain or good ways to sacrifice Enchantments (There are a few in Red). 2.0

Tymaret Calls the Dead - There is some value here for not much mana, so I’d usually run this. But it’s not as good as the other Rare Sagas. 3.0

Storm Herald - This is a 3/2 with Haste for 3, so evaluate it as that. Sometimes you’ll have an Aura to get back, but not always, and even so it’s just for the one turn. 2.5

Storm’s Wrath - This kills most creatures, but leaves up the big baddies, which makes it a little harder to ensure you’re going to come out on top. Still good, but not quite as good as the White board wipe. Also, White needs sweepers more than Red does. 3.5

Underworld Breach - While clearly a Constructed powerhouse, this isn’t awful in Limited. You’ll buy back your best threat or removal for a 2 mana tax, which is playable, but I’d rather pick a good threat or removal over this first, then add this on the wheel if I’m short on playables. 2.0

Dryad of the Ilysian Grove - If you need need a 2/4 for 3 that fixes your colors, this does the trick very well, and is pleasant to look at while he does so. But he’s not going to be bonkers like he is in EDH. 2.5

Nessian Boar - On the one hand, a 10/6 is fucking massive. On the other hand, I have no idea how to evaluate that downside. Often, it’ll trade with several of your opponent’s creatures at once, but then they’ll draw a bunch of cards to replace them. It does make sure all your other attackers get through, so I’m going to start assuming this is very good and be open to adjusting up or down as the format shakes out. 3.5

Nylea’s Intervention - If there’s a skies deck in the format, this will be the ultimate sideboard card. If not, it’s purely for constructed. 1.5

Nyxbloom Ancient - Someone somewhere is going to win by playing this followed by a massive Purphoros’s Intervention, but most of the time, it’s going to be an expensive 5/5. Good with Nylea, but then you’ve really hit the jackpot. 2.0

Allure of the Unknown - This is so tough to evaluate, but I’m not optimistic. Let’s say you get 4 spells and 2 lands. Your opponent is going to take the best spell and gets to cast it immediately, then untap, while you have to wait until your next turn to cast your second-best cards. That doesn’t strike me as a great option, and this becomes a huge liability if you have a bomb or two in your deck. Let’s save this for Commander. 1.0

Atris, Oracle of Half-Truths - A 3/2 with Meance that does a mini Fact or Fiction is a good deal for 4 mana, even if this will never be bonkers. 3.5

Bronzehide Lion - Watchwolf with the ability to become Indestructible is sweet, and the added value when it dies is excellent. It won’t run away with games, but it’s going to be super annoying to play against. 3.5

Calix, Destiny’s Hand - Calix, aside from being super fine, is a niche card more than an auto-include. You want somewhere in the ballpark of 10+ Enchantments in your deck before I’d say he’s really great. Once you’re there, he’s incredible. 3.5

Dalakos, Crafter of Wonders - 2/4 Merfolk is fine, but unexciting for 3 mana. The rest of the text barely matters. 2.0

Enigmatic Incarnation - The hoops on this seem ridiculous to jump through in Limited. I wouldn’t bother, and I know someone is going to kill me with this now that I’ve said that. 0.0

Gallia of the Endless Dance - Fun Commander, and fun in Limited, particularly if you pick up a few other Satyrs. A nice mix of flavor and playability. 3.5

Kunoros, Hound of Athreos - 3/3 Vigilance, Lifelink, Menace for 3 mana is a great deal, and is definitely playable if you’re in these colors. That said, White/Black are two of the colors that most want to play cards from Graveyards, so this nonbos with many of the best cards in the colors, limiting its usefulness. 3.0

Nyx Lotus - This will be great for Brawl & Commander, and seems basically unplayable in Limited. 0.0

Labyrinth of Skophos - This Maze of Ith variant is useful, but comes at the expense of color fixing in a set where that matters. But I’d still usually run this, since it’s late game utility is so high. 3.0

Temple Lands - These are great, these fix your mana, and they smooth your draw. Play them. 3.0

That’s it! All the cards from Theros Beyond Death! Whew.

What are you excited to play this prerelease?

#MtG #Theros Beyond Death

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housebeleren · 4 years

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Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths Limited: Bomb Rares

Last but definitely not least, it’s time for the Rares and Mythics from Ikoria. Keep your eyes out for these when you’re drafting.

White

The stats on this are great, even just to cast on curve. If and when you decide to Mutate it, you’ll get some tokens for your effort. It’s not exactly a bomb, but it’s a powerful threat that will help you stabilized from even the most aggressive early onslaughts from your opponent. 3.5/5

A 3/3 for 3 is a card you’ll want to include in most decks anyway, since it’s just a great on-curve play. But this can block half of all possible threats without any issue, and dodges half of all removal. This is a fantastic target to Mutate onto, and a good creature on its own. 3.5/5

This is a straight up bomb. If your opponent doesn’t remove it immediately, the value you’ll get just insane. Definitely always play this if you can. 4.5/5

Blue

4 Mana to get a copy of the best card on any side of the battlefield is pretty reasonable, and sometimes it’ll be a straight 2-for-1 if you have the mana requirements. It’s great when you’re ahead, and stabilizing when you’re behind, and I’d run it even if I couldn’t make the alternate mana. That said, it’s not a bomb, since it is contingent on something else worth copying being present. 3.5/5

This is really, really good. If you don’t have something to Mutate it onto, you can wait until your opponent leaves themselves open, throw this down at the end of their turn, then net yourself a card off it. If you have multiple creatures, you can take a wide swing, see what goes unblocked, then Mutate it onto that one. Look for creatures with evasion and this can become a threat that will overtake the game quickly. 3.5/5

This is just great value. Normally, leaving mana up for a counter is bad news, but when it’s attached to a large creature, it’s way better. This can also ambush attackers nicely. You’ll often get a 2-for-1 out of this, and worse case you can just drop it at end of turn if there isn’t a chance to use it. 3.5/5

Black

This is really great. The Mutate cost is high, but just throwing this down as a 3/3 Flier on your opponent’s turn is great value. Then, Mutate it with something cheaper on the next turn and you’re gold. It’s going to be hard getting ahead if your opponent has this sitting on the battlefield. 4.0/5

Also great. 3 mana instant speed removal is always playable, and if you’re in the right colors, this can hit anything you need to hit. Even in mono-Black, this is great. 3.5/5

The dream of putting this in an all (or mostly) Even or Odds deck is a pipe dream. It’s not going to happen. However, you have the advantage of knowing this is coming, and can play around it to make sure you wipe out more of your opponent’s stuff than yours. It shouldn’t be hard to make this great. 3.5/5

Red

Baseline, this is a 4/4 with Flying for 4 mana, and that’s always playable. If you manage to Mutate it, it gets even better, and will be a recursive threat that’s difficult to deal with. I’d always run this. 4.0/5

I’d be remiss not to mention Lukka. Sadly, he doesn’t inherently provide any immediate board impact, which you usually want with a 5 drop ‘walker. But, he can draw you multiple cards a turn, and can transform tokens or early drops into bigger threats. I’d usually run this unless I was in a heavy spells deck. He’s not a bomb, but will usually be solid. 3/5

This is great, and you really don’t need to be in 3 colors. You can easily take out 2 or 3 smallish threats with this, or just use it to take out one bigger thing. It’s great, flexible removal, and that’s always welcome. 3.5/5

7 Mana is a lot, but it’s worth it for an 8/8 with Trample and Haste. Not only that, but you can cycle it away if you draw it early. You’re rarely going to get it into play using its ability, but it’s worth playing either way. 3.5/5

Green

You’re rarely going to Mutate this, but even if you don’t, it’s a 4/4 with Reach and Trample for 4 mana, and that’s a good deal. If they do have problematic permanents around, you have the flexibility to take care of it, but it’s nice that it’s good without that. 3.0/5

The mana cost on this is a little intense, but it’s going to be a massive swing when it comes down, as it can enter and take down nearly anything your opponent may have. If you have any humans in the deck, it’s near impossible to deal with as well. 4.0/5

And finally, Vivien, probably the biggest bomb in the set, at least as far as mono-color cards are concerned. She churns out a 3/3 every turn, and can produce insane card advantage if she sticks around. She’s likely to dominate any board state. The only thing that would make her better is if she had removal. 4.5/5

Multicolor & Colorless

The nice thing about Brokkos is that he works sort of like a potent enchantment that you can cast over and over from your graveyard, but he’s also a solid creature on his own. He’s a strong card I’d consider in any base Green deck that’s able to splash. 3.5/5

Illuna has phenomenal stats on its own, but is also fantastic if you’re able to Mutate it, since the free card it brings into play will help mitigate any potential loss if it gets removed later. If you can keep mutating onto it, it keeps getting better and better. 3.5/5

A lot of this cycle is pretty mediocre, but I like this guy. He guarantees a trade if he ever becomes blocked, and threatens lots of damage if they don’t. You’ll really want to grab other creatures with Menace is you pick him early, because he makes them way stronger. 3.5/5

Nethroi is the outlier in the Mythic cycle of Mutate creatures, in that you’ll probably cast it for its standard cost and Mutate it later rather than the other way around. That said, it’s possibly the ultimate late game card, and a true bomb if you can get it to go off. I’d definitely stretch my mana to make this happen. 4.0/5

The nice thing about this one is that Flying is abundant. Unlike the other cards in this cycle, whose abilities are more sparse. Not only that, but it’s a good early drop to Mutate onto and a fantastic mana sink late in the game. 3.5/5

The stats on Snapdax are potent even if it never Mutates. But if it does, it’s going to be a beating for your opponent. I can’t imagine not running this if I thought I could make the colors work. 4.0/5

Vadrox is a little more niche, as you do want some noncreature spells to really be worthwhile. That said, it’s a solid creature on its own if you can manage the mana cost. If you are able to reuse some removal spells by Mutating this, you’re in value town. 3.5/5

You’re not going to draft a deck to actually use this as a companion, but it’s a fantastic 3 drop in any deck that can cast it. It’s got solid stats, and you’ll likely have some cheap creatures in your deck you can recur with this. It’s some good value. 3.5/5

In this case, it’s completely possible to draft a deck that has all different cards, and use this as intended as a companion. Then, copy a nice removal spell and you’re gold. Even if you don’t, it’s a well-costed creature on its own that can ambush in attacks, and the ability will be great bonus. 3.5/5

Yorion isn’t just great in Standard. In limited, it’s a well-costed Flying threat that can be easily cast in either of its colors. On top of that, on the turn it comes in, it will untap any number of tapped creatures you control, knock off bothersome auras, and re-trigger any ETBs you may have. In short, all upside. I can’t imagine this not being great. Don’t worry about the companion text, just run it in the maindeck and it will be excellent. 4.0/5

Crystalline Giant is excellent. It can be cast on-curve in any deck, and just gets progressively better every turn it’s out. It’s a fantastic target to Mutate later, especially if it gets Hexproof early on. Always play this. 4.0/5

The Rest of the Rares

Drannith Magistrate - Aside from very rarely nullifying Companions, this is a 1/3 for 2. It is a relevant creature type, but that’s not enough to make him interesting. 1.5

Mythos of Snapdax - Cataclysm is a decent card in limited, and most decks will be able to arrange a situation so this is more beneficial than not. It goes up a full point if you’re reliably in Mardu colors, so consider it premium removal in that case. 3.0

Shark Typhoon - This is one of those weird cards where I suspect you’l actually cycle it more than cast it. A 2/2 Flier that draws you a card is worth 4 mana, and same goes up the chain, making this a surprisingly good curve-filler. But I doubt you’ll have enough noncreature spells in your deck to make this worth casting for full cost. 3.0

Hunted Nightmare - This is extremely well-costed, and if you can land it before your opponent has a creature, you’ve really done well. Great in aggressive decks, and fine in more controlling decks, you’ll basically always play it. 3.0

Unpredictable Cyclone - This seems way too sketchy of a proposition in limited. Sure, it’s massive value once it comes online, but that’s assuming you have enough Cycling cards in your deck to get use out of it. I’d run it very cautiously, only if you have a high volume of Cycling cards and this is your top end. 1.5

Colossification - You’ll definitely have the biggest creature on the battlefield once you land this. Sure, you can’t swing after and you’re leaving yourself open for removal, but it is huge. Still, 7 mana is a lot for a card that only works without disruption of any kind. 1.5

Mythos of Brokkos - You’ll generally just recover two things that are already in your Graveyard, which makes this basically a Soul Salvage at 4 mana. Even if you get the bonus, it’s not likely to make much of a difference. 1.5

Cheville, Bane of Monsters - This is well-costed, and will sometimes reward you with a nice payout when something dies. It’s even a decent topdeck to stabilize. 3.0

Death’s Oasis - The mana cost will be tricky to get on turn 3, and it doesn’t affect the board immediately, but it’s going to generate a lot of value if it lands and sticks around. If you’re solidly in Abzan colors, it’s probably worth including. 2.5

Eerie Ultimatrum - I love this in theory, but the mana cost of the Ultimatums is so restrictive I wouldn’t generally run any of them. And this one is no exception. 0.5

Emergent Ultimatum - This one has literally no possibility of working. So just don’t. 0.0

Frondland Felidar - Tappers are great, and this is, at its core, a tapper. Not only that, but it has the possibility of turning other creatures into tappers, and that’s a nice perk. 3.5

General Kudro of Drannith - The stats are right, and you’re likely to have a few other Humans that will get bigger off this. It’s probably going to be good any time you can run it. 3.5

Genesis Ultimatum - This one at least will impact the board when you cast it, but is still far to costly to run in most decks. If you have the colors and lots of ramp, maybe. 1.0

Inspired Ultimatum - Similar story with this, but you’re not in Green, so it’s less likely you’ll have good ramp & fixing to make this happen. 0.5

Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy - This is cute, but mostly just a bear in limited. It does have a cute mana sink for the late game. 1.5

Narset of the Ancient Way - I wish she affected the board a little more, but she’s rarely going to be bad, unless you’re really far behind. If you can untap with her out, she will accelerate your game very quickly. 3.5

Offspring’s Revenge - It’s cute, but 5 mana is a lot to get a series of 1/1s. Most of them won’t have useful abilities either, since you won’t get Mutate triggers off this. But still, there’s a bit of potential. 1.5

Quartzwood Crasher - The stats on this are good, and there’s some runaway potential if they don’t have good blockers. If you have other Trample creatures, this can be even better. 3.5

Rielle, the Everwise - In a heavy noncreature deck, she could do some work. But my guess is most of the time, it won’t do much. 2.0

Ruinous Ultimatum - This is massively powerful and will basically end the game for your opponent, so it has more possibility than the others in this cycle. But the cost is still intense, and you likely won’t be able to get to it often. Run with caution. 1.5

Slitherwisp - On its own, this is a well-costed threat that can ambush small attackers with ease. If you do manage to grab any other creatures with Flash, this gets way better, so definitely take that in consideration. 3.0

Song of Creation - This seems more suited for constructed, but could work in limited. It’ll definitely speed up your game, but could backfire. 1.5

Titans’ Nest - Nope. Hard pass. 0.0

Whirlwind of Thought - You’d need to draw at least 3 cards off this for it to be worth playing, and that’s not usually going to happen. I’d skip it. 0.5

Winota, Joiner of Forces - The stats are great on its own, and sometimes you’ll get some free value out of it too, but you really don’t need to build your deck into craziness to make it good. 3.5

Fiend Artisan - The cost is easy to make happen, and even if you never activate the ability, this gets bigger as your other things die, so it scales nicely throughout the game. 3.5

Gyruda, Doom of Depths - 6 mana for a 6/6, and sometimes it will come with a free buddy from the grave. That’s worth including, but it’s not worth contorting your deck build around. 2.5

Gyruda, the Wellspring - This is a 5/5 for 5 mana, and it’s easy to cast. That’s a good deal, though how this ability is allowed to be a hybrid Red card is beyond me. 3.0

Kaheera, the Orphanguard - You won’t get this as a Companion basically ever, but it’s got decent stats and will randomly buff some of your other creatures. 2.5

Keruga, the Macrosage - This one actually is somewhat viable as a Companion, and the stats are decent on their own. Usually you’ll draw one or two cards when this enters, and that’s enough to make this solidly playable. 3.0

Obosh, the Preypiercer - This hits like a 6/5, which is generally playable for 5 mana, and it will make all your other odd-CMC cards hit like tanks as well. Definitely a decent inclusion in all decks. 3.0

Umori, the Collector - Sadly, I doubt this will do much good with its abilities, but the stats are really strong on their own, so it’s probably worth running just as a vanilla creature. 3.0

Zirda, the Dawnwaker - Decent stats make this playable on its own, and occasionally, the abilities will be worth something too. 2.5

The Ozolith - Unless you’re in a very heavy counters deck, I don’t think this will warrant a spot. Seems more like a constructed plant. 1.0

Bonders’ Enclave - If you have multiple 4+ power creatures, and aren’t running intensive 3 color cards, the opportunity cost of running this is very low. I’d usually err on the side of including it, outside those restrictions. 3.0

Triome Lands - Mana fixing and Cycling for the late game? I’m in, and these seem very good. 3.0

And that’s it. Have fun!

#MtG #ikoria

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housebeleren · 4 years

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Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths Limited: Premium Uncommons

It’s time for the Uncommon cards in Ikoria. Let’s dive right in.

White

What’s nice here is the flexibility. You can cast it on curve if you need a blocker, or use it as a pump spell for your team. That said, it doesn’t pump itself, so it doesn’t do as well with massive stacking like some of the others. I would still take some of the good Common removal over this, but it’s better than most of the creatures in White at Common, and most at Uncommon. 2.5/5

This, however, is better than any White creature at Common or Uncommon. The numbers here are great. 3/3 with Lifelink for 3 is a great deal, and adding Cycling to the mix is just fantastic. You’re probably not going to Cycle it often, but it’s worth having the option. 3.0/5

There is a serious dearth of Uncommon removal in White. This is super efficient, but has enough constraints that sometimes it won’t work out. They have to have a tapped creature, and you need to also have a creature that you’re okay leaving down for a turn. But the rate is phenomenal enough that I’d usually include this in most White decks. 3.0/5

To be honest, I’m a little disappointed in White so far. The Commons & Uncommons just don’t seem up to the power level of the rest of the colors. But only time will tell.

Blue

The stat loss isn’t too much, but removing the abilities can be particularly useful against Mutate. It won’t stop it from gaining abilities through ability counters, though. Either way, it’s a useful tool that many Blue decks will want. 2.5/5

Probably the best Blue Uncommon. Even just flashing this in as a surprise blocker is some great value, but if you get a chance to Mutate it multiple times, it’ll keep your opponent’s board clear. The potential value here is insane. 3.5/5

If you don’t have any non-Human creatures, this is pretty terrible, but if you do, it’s one of the best in the “mentor” cycle. Flying is incredibly useful, and if you have a good number of creatures that have Flying naturally, its activated ability will be excellent. 3.0/5

Blue’s Uncommon’s seem very swingy. There are a lot of buildarounds and cards that are only useful in some specific decks, but there are enough generally useful cards that you should always find some solid picks.

Black

You don’t want tons of these, but it’s a pretty solid top end for most decks. The base stats are good, and the ability ensures that you’re going to typically break even on the card disadvantage inherent with Mutate. I expect running this in all but the most aggressive Black decks is correct. 3.0/5

The restriction is real, but Cycling makes this a card that you’ll be happy to include most of the time. There are some good low drops in the set, and you can use it in response to an opponent trying to Mutate an early creature. (It won’t stop the new creature from entering, but it will stop any Mutate triggers as well as kill the 2 drop.) I’d usually include one of these. 3.0/5

Grimdancer seems nuts. 3/3 for 3 is a great line for stats anyway, but the fact that it comes in with two abilities of your choice is ridiculous. Menace & Deathtouch if you’re trying to force damage through multiple big blockers, Menace & Lifelink if you are pushing an advantage, and Lifelink & Deathtouch if you’re behind and trying to stabilize. Seems great. 3.5/5

This is the best Black removal. Most creatures won’t have counters on them, so a lot of the time, this is premium cheap removal. Occasionally, you’ll be able to strip something of its +1/+1 counters or abilities, and win a combat or save yourself from a big flier or something. I don’t think you can have too many of these. 3.5/5

Black’s Uncommons seem nuts, compared with some of the other colors. Almost every one is strong, and most are playable in any deck. I suspect Black will be quite good in this format.

Red

Flame Spill seems great. I’ll pay 3 mana for 4 damage any day, and the “Trample” portion is a cute bonus. 3.0/5

A 3/2 for 3 is a decent stat line on its own, and Menace is a useful ability to tack on to most things. If you do get this to stick, making your Menace creature bigger and bigger is pretty potent, but you won’t often have occasion to pump up more than one creature with this. 3.0/5

A lot of this cycle honestly aren’t that great, but I do like the smasher here. Cycling it to grant First Strike can be an effective combat trick to win a combat, whereas most of the others can’t do that. If you don’t need to Cycle him early a 6 power creature with First Strike is a beast on offense and defense, and will be very hard to kill through combat. He’s a great top end for most Red decks. 3.0/5

Green

Ignoring all the text, this is a 6/6 for five mana, which is an awesome deal, and often that’ll be the way to play it. But the nice thing is if you do Mutate it, it makes up for the card disadvantage by dropping another permanent into play with it. If you ever get to Mutate this more than once, you probably just win. 3.5/5

The stats on this are good enough to play on curve, and it becomes a big threat very quickly if you opt to Mutate it. I’d basically always take this and run it. 3.0/5

You’re basically always slightly behind curve when you play this, but the flexibility is worth it. It’s worth mentioning that +1/+1 counters work especially well with Mutate, since you don’t lose them when you put another creature on top. So I’d generally play this when you don’t have another play, then try to Mutate it from there. Any way you do it, it’s probably going to be a good inclusion in your deck. 3.0/5

Mutlicolor

This seems great. Stats are good on its own, and with enough Mutate creatures in the deck, you can grab a bunch of stuff back from the grave. As always, the best Mutate abilities mitigate the inherent card disadvantage, and this one is particularly great. 3.5/5

Whether you’re in Humans or not, the cost on this is low enough to basically always make the cut. It’s way better in Humans, obviously, but it will often be worth 3-4 life to remove a major threat at Instant speed. 3.5/5

They really went for the graveyard retrieval with these Uncommons, didn’t they? Lore Drakkis isn’t always going to have good targets, but if you have some removal spells already used, this is going to be fantastic. I won’t slam it in every deck that can run it, but in decks that can reliably cast it on curve and have a few good spells, I’d put it in. 3.0/5

This bears a lot of similarity to Boneyard Lurker above, but it is more restrictive on what it can get back. On the other hand, it’s cheaper and puts it right on the battlefield, so it’s probably even better for a more aggressive build, whereas the Lurker is better for slower, grindier builds. Either way, it seems great. 3.5/5

The stats are below curve, to be sure, but that ability is insane. Trust me, I’ve played with it a few times, it’s insane. You’re drawing a card every turn, and sometimes flat out ramping for a single mana. If you Mutate it onto a creature that already exists, you can use the ability right away, so again, it mitigates the card disadvantage inherent in the mechanic. All told, this is almost a “mythic” Uncommon. Not quite, but it’s close. 3.5/5

Trumpeting Gnarr seems great. 3/3 for 3 is pretty sweet on curve, and it can create an army of more 3/3s very quickly. I like that it rewards you by going wide each time you stack another creature on it, so you’re not putting all your eggs in once basket, so to speak. 3.0/5

On curve, this is a Wind Drake that resists removal, which is pretty sweet. If you have other fliers, which you probably will in this color, this gets better, and it’s a great Mutate target. 3.0/5

The Rest of the Uncommons

Fight As One - There’s a lot of text on this for a 1 drop, but in the end, it’s typically going to counter a removal spell or help you win or survive a combat. Generally a 1-for-1, despite the technical possibility that you’ll blow out by having two targets for this. I’d run one, but not more. 2.0

Flourishing Fox - You really want to be in the Cycling deck before you run this, because it’s just not impactful if you only have one or two Cycling cards. In the dedicated Cycling deck, it goes up a fair amount. 1.5

Keensight Mentor - Vigilance is one of the weakest of this cycle, and the stats are a bit mediocre as well. If you happen to draft lots of other creatures that naturally have Vigilance, have at it. 2.0

Majestic Auricorn - The stats on this are fine, and if you have a heavy Mutate deck, I would run this. It will prove really annoying for your opponent if they can’t remove it. On the other hand, this creature (unlike many of the better ones) doesn’t mitigate the card disadvantage built into the mechanic, which leaves you more open for getting blown out by a removal spell. 2.5

Sanctuary Lockdown - This is a very swingy card. If you’re in a heavy Humans deck, it’s going to be great. If you’re not, it’s AWFUL. I’ll split the difference a bit and say generally you won’t want it, but it might be worth speculating on early just in case. 1.5

Stormwild Capridor - It’s a slightly below curve flier, but it dodges basically all Red and Green removal, which is pretty sweet, and makes this a good Mutate target. I’d run this in basically all White decks. 2.5

Valiant Rescuer - Like Flourishing Fox, this is meant as a payoff for the Cycling deck. Unlike the Fox, this is a decent card on its own. It’s a good aggressive creature, and it has Cycling itself if it becomes outclassed in the late game. It goes up a notch in the full Cycling deck. 2.5

Will of the All-Hunter - This is a solid trick, and having Cycling means it won’t rot in your hand. I’d generally include a copy in most decks, and run up to two in the Cycling deck. 2.0

Archipelagore - The hope for this card is for it to be the last card you Mutate onto a creature you’ve already Mutated a few times before and Alpha strike. That will pan out once in a while. A lot of the time, this will just be a solid top end threat for a Blue deck. But it does run the risk of stagnating in your hand, so run it judiciously. 2.5

Boon of the Wish-Giver - This is cute. Draw one card for one mana or four cards for 6 mana. In a slower, more controlling deck, this will be pretty great. But it seems a touch slow for this format, so I’d be cautious. 2.0

Escape Protocol - There’s a tiny flicker subtheme in this set, but mostly this seems like more of a constructed card than a limited one. But in the Cycling deck, it might be worth trying. 1.0

Neutralize - This is going to be a constructed all-star. In limited, it’s also pretty good, since the issue with most counters is that you’ll save your mana to not have a target to counter. In this case, you can cycle it away for something more useful. I’d generally run this unless I was already flush with removal. 2.5

Ominous Seas - This is quite cute, and it will be a real card in the Cycling deck. In a normal deck, it’s too slow, so I wouldn’t run it. But it will come together often enough to consider. 2.0

Pollywog Symbiote - This is great. It’s a decent early drop, and it’s fantastic ramp if you have Mutate cards. Plus, once you start Mutating, it keeps your hand smooth. It’s definitely worth holding up excess lands once your curve ends if you have this card out. 2.5

Reconnaissance Mission - The card does nothing on its own, but it’s really great if you have lots of fliers, and Cycling means the floor is pretty high. I’d run this in most decks with a decent number of evasive creatures. 2.5

Bastion of Remembrance - This will be great in constructed. In limited, it seems a bit too slow to have a real impact. If you are in a heavy token deck, it may be worth it. 1.5

Call of the Death-Dweller - If you are in a low-curve deck, the price is right and this will sometimes be a solid 2-for-1. But it’s definitely not for every deck. 2.0

Duskfang Mentor - Lifelink is very useful ability, and you really want to have a good 2 drop to play this after. After that, you can run away with the game pretty quickly. But it’s a pretty weak first play. 2.5

Insatiable Hemophage - The Mutate ability on this isn’t particularly great, but it’s a decent 4 drop that can provide some extra value later. I’d generally run it. 2.5

Unbreakable Bond - Rise from the Grave is usually playable, but rarely great, and Lifelink doesn’t make it especially better. If you have really good bombs, this gets better, but I wouldn’t usually rush to grab this. 2.0

Void Beckoner - Most of the time, this will play like an expensive Bladebrand, but this set isn’t as conducive to it being good like Ravnica Allegiance was. That said, it has the backup option of being a massive tank later, so there’s some extra flexibility. I’d give it a try. 2.0

Zagoth Mamba - Normally a one drop 1/1 isn’t where I’d like to go, but there’s a huge amount of potential here if you can Mutate this. I’d run it if you have at least 5 or 6 Mutate creatures, and skip it if you don’t. 2.5

Blitz of the Thunder-Raptor - I like this for constructed, but in limited, there’s too big a chance that it will be completely dead. I would only run this in extremely spell-heavy decks. 1.5

Clash of Titans - The dream of this is to be able to have two of your opponent’s creatures kill each other. That’ll happen once in a while, and sometimes it’ll just be a straightforward normal fight. Instant speed makes the 5 mana not as huge a liability as it could be. 2.5

Footfall Crater - This seems way more destined for Constructed, maybe Brawl. Some bullshit with Ilharg and Drakuseth, no doubt. In limited, it’s not worth the card slot, even if you’re short on Cyclers. 0.5

Momentum Rumbler - A Hill Giant with First Strike is a great card, and it shouldn’t be too hard to get this there. Once it does, it becomes a major threat, and I’d basically always start this. 3.0

Porcuparrot - The stats are fair, and this can turn into a pretty reasonable pinger without too much effort. I like that it can hit any target, and can do so right away if you Mutate it onto something. 3.0

Reptilian Reflection - In the Cycling deck, this becomes a reasonable threat, but anywhere else, it’s pretty bad. I’d only pick it if I was already pretty solid in the archetype. 1.5

Rooting Moloch - This, on the other hand, is pretty playable in either case, since worst case it’s a slightly below-curve 4/4 that doesn’t punish you if you draw it in a mana-tight opening hand. I’d basically always run this, and the value goes way up if you’re in the Cycling build. 2.5

Weaponize the Monsters - There doesn’t seem to be a super viable sacrifice build in this set, so my guess is this usually won’t come together. But, it does work at Instant speed, so gives you the ability to ping what you want with a chump blocker, so it’s not totally useless. 1.5

Barrier Breach - Even with Cycling, I doubt this will be useful in limited. This is made for constructed. 0.5

Charge of the Forever-Beast - This is pretty cute, but is reaaaaally starting to feel like Green is eating up all the color pie space on all sides. I’d probably run this most of the time. 2.5

Exuberant Wolfbear - The stats on this are great enough to play on its own, but it also upgrades a lower drop Human if you have one before it. Don’t stress about waiting to play this, just drop it on curve and be happy with any incidental extra value. 3.0

Hornbash Mentor - A lot of the cards in this cycle have below-curve stats, but this one (go figure for Green), is right on curve, so you really don’t have any downside to running this. Similar to the Wolfbear above, play it on curve, and be happy. 3.0

Lead the Stampede - In a Creature-heavy deck, this is better than Divination, and I’d always run it. If you have fewer than 10 Creatures, I probably wouldn’t run the risk. 2.5

Migration Path - Despite this being the plane of monsters, Ikoria seems much more midrange than true “battlecruiser” magic. As such, ramp like this goes down in value. I’d generally save this for constructed, unless you really need fixing. 1.5

Monstrous Step - At first blush, this looks awful, but most of the time, this will be pretty clean removal. There are ways to get blown out by this, so don’t get surprised by instant speed removal. Cycling makes it less of a risk to include, so I’d usually try it. 2.5

Titanoth Rex - This is huge, but 9 mana is a ton. Fortunately, you can Cycle it away if you don’t think you’re going to get there, and it gives a little bonus if you do. I’d try it, but I’m not optimistic about casting it often. 2.0

Back for More - This is a good clean 2-for-1 in most cases, which I’d hope so given it’s a 6 drop. If you have some big Cycling creatures, this can be a fun way to cheat them out. But it does risk sitting in your hand for a long time, so play it cautiously. 2.0

Channeled Force - I like the theory here, but in reality, in limited by the time you are ready to cast a 4 drop, you’re not going to have a large hand AND several cards you want to get rid of, most games. Seems unlikely to work out. 1.0

General’s Enforcer - You’re rarely going to get value out of the first bit of rules text, but the second bit is pretty solid. Creatures will naturally end up in the graveyard, and this is a fantastic mana sink late in the game. I’d always run this if I were in the colors. 3.0

Primal Empathy - This one looks promising, but it’s a pretty classic “good when you’re ahead, awful when you’re behind” card. And it’s an awful topdeck. If you are in the colors and have lots of early drops, this can work. 2.0

Regal Leosaur - The stats are right, and in an aggressive deck, this will be powerhouse. It does leave you open to a 2-for-1, so I don’t love it as much as the other multicolor Uncommons. But I’d still run it. 2.5

Savai Thundermane - The nice thing about this is the stats are good whether or not you ever get a chance to activate the ability. If you do, this will be a great card. 3.0

Skull Prophet - The stats are good here, and the ramp is great. It’s not splashable, but it’s a good inclusion if you’re in the colors. 2.5

Sprite Dragon - This is a great card if you cast it on curve, since you’ll easily get it to 2/2 or 3/3 in most decks. The only reason it’s not higher is that it’s not a good late game draw. 2.5

Zenith Flare - In a dedicated Cycling deck, this will be a decent removal spell, but you’ll really want a lot of them before this becomes playable. 2.0

Alert Heedbonder - The stats on this are solid, and it gains you a life every turn just for being there, which will be very annoying for your opponent. Seems likely to be good. 3.0

Cunning Nightbonder - A 2/2 with Flash for 2 is a good deal no matter how you slice it, though the extra ability won’t come up all that often. 2.5

Proud Wildbonder - On its own, this is a decent creature, but it really gets better if you have other creatures with Trample. Its score really depends on how much Trample you get. 2.5

Sonorous Howlbonder - Huh, that’s interesting. Super Menace. I’d generally run this, but I’m really unsure how good it will end up being. This seems like it might format-dependent. 2.5

Triome Crystals - These are all pretty solid, and are great for a splash. I wouldn’t prioritize them too hard if you’re clearly in 2 colors. But as soon as you’re thinking about 3 colors, I’d be sure to pick one up. 2.0

That’s it for the Uncommons. Last but not least are the Rares & Mythics.

#MtG #ikoria

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housebeleren · 4 years

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Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths Limited: Power Commons

Time goes by so quickly. It’s already Ikoria season, so I’m going to run through the Limited environment, hopefully in time to start some drafts on Arena. This looks like a super fun set, so let’s get to it!

White

White always gets some good removal. Usually, this type of removal is fairly conditional, but on Ikoria, I have a feeling that it will be a fairly useful inclusion to maindeck, and will be particularly good in Best of One games, where they won’t necessarily know to play around it. But I’d generally start with running one copy. 3.0/5

Tappers are always welcome, even if the baseline stats are a bit anemic. He’ll keep the biggest threat dealt with, and will be best in Humans decks looking to go wide so he can clear a path to get damage through. He gets much worse in multiples, however, so don’t overload on these. 3.0/5

Honestly, White’s creatures at Common seem a bit behind the other colors. That said, I suspect this one will play well. The default mode will be Flying, but sometimes if you’re on the defense against small ground units, First Strike will be better, and having the choice is worth a lot. This is also a wonderful target to Mutate in the later game, since both abilities are useful on offense as well. I suspect the Nightmare Squirrel will play really well. 3.0/5

Pacifism is always great, and it’s even better when it neutralizes multiple cards at once that they’ve mutated together. There’s some Enchantment removal in the set, but not much, and very little sacrifice, so I suspect Pacifism will be an all star. 3.5/5

White gets a lot of its usual tricks. The Humans tribe seems weaker than the non-humans, at first blush, but that could just be that all the exciting keywords are centered on the non-humans. Either way, White has some good tools at Common.

Blue

This was good in Guilds of Ravnica, and I suspect it will be good here too, for a lot of the same reasons Pacifism is. The mana cost is a bit heavy, but you’ll still take this and play it without hesitation. 3.0/5

This seems like one of the better Common Mutate creatures. 4 mana to pump up an early drop and give it Flying isn’t super cheap, but the card replaces itself to mitigate any removal, and if it sticks around, any future mutations you play on it replace themselves as well, which is pretty sweet. But even the failsafe of a 3/4 Flying creature is pretty great, and the flexibility will make this card shine. 3.0/5

I always liked Scroll Thief cards, and this one has the added benefit of being a fantastic Mutate target. Mutating this into Dreamtail Heron a turn later seems like an excellent way to build some crazy value. I definitely wouldn’t sleep on that combo. Without good Mutate creatures to push this through, it drops a bit, but in Blue, I suspect you’ll have options. 2.5/5

Blue has some decent creatures and a few solid tricks at Common. It seems like it will play slightly less of a controlling game in this format than it has in some recent ones, and be best as a tempo deck. But time will tell.

Black

It’s clean removal at a reasonable cost, and it leaves you with a little perk when it’s done. I’ll take it any day. 3.0/5

Deathtouch will probably be the default mode here, but it’s possible you’ll opt for Lifelink, particularly if you intend to Mutate this into something with higher Power & evasion of some kind. I’d run this without the option, and the fact that it has options makes it even better. 3.0/5

These “finisher” cards are always solid, but the stats are a bit mediocre for 4 mana. However, giving it Flash adds a lot of functionality. For one, you don’t even have to have a target for its ability. You can just Flash it in as a surprise blocker and trade. It also works on both offense and defense, whereas most of these don’t. All told, I’ll start relatively high on this one, and see how it plays. 3.0/5

Black seems a little lacking in strong Creatures at Common, but a lot of flexibility, which is good. And there’s plenty of removal to be had, so it will always be a solid color.

Red

3 damage for 2 is a pretty solid rate, and it gives you a little filtering as a bonus. Easily Red’s best Common. 3.0/5

It’s a little strange to see this spell in Red, but I suppose it is in color pie, so I can’t complain too much. The cheap cycling cost on this makes it a no-brainer inclusion. 3.0/5

It was a little tricky picking a best creature at Common, but in the end I settled on this guy. He’s reasonably costed on his own, and has a potential to take down bigger creatures with his ability. Plus, he’s a pretty solid Mutate target, so I’d generally run one or two of these without complaining. 2.5/5

Red seems well-poised with spells at Common, but no really exciting creatures, which makes me think it will be a very good partner color, but maybe not a great primary color on its own.

Green

Probably the best Mutate target in the game. It comes down early, and as soon as you mutate it, it gets huge really quick. But the best part is, you don’t even have to target this one, and you still get the bonus. Definitely don’t sleep on this little guy. 2.5/5

How this card made it to print, I have no clue. It wasn’t that long ago that Rabid Bite was a radical improvement for Green’s removal, but now it’s at Instant speed AND has Trample. Seems like the era of Green’s dominance in Limited isn’t done yet. 3.5/5

The stats on this guy are really solid, and Trample makes for a great Mutate target. Self-milling for 3 doesn’t seem like a liability in this set like it was in previous formats, and there are some potential synergies, particularly if you end up in the Sultai wedge. I’d generally start this guy. 2.5/5

Green strikes me as probably the strongest color, based on just its Commons. While other colors have better removal, Green has just generally strong creatures, and this seems very much like a creature sent, where pushing through big monsters will be the deciding factor.

The Rest of the Commons

Now for all the rest of the Commons. Scale out of 5.

Adaptive Shimmerer - A 3/3 with Flash is a horrible deal for 5 mana, but it all being completely colorless does help, particularly in a tri-color set. The counters also synergize nicely with Mutate, so I think this will be better than it looks. But still not great. Play it if you are lacking creatures. 2.0

Farfinder - I suspect Farfinder will be pretty good. It helps you fix your colors, then sticks around as a body for Mutate, plus it comes with a relevant ability. Not bad. 2.5

Mysterious Egg - You want to be heavy in good Mutate creatures before you consider this, but once you are, you could do worse. My only issue is that it does literally nothing on its own, so it’s an awful topdeck and bad if you don’t find your Mutate cards. 1.5

Coordinated Charge - Adding a mana onto Inspiring Charge is rough, but having Cycling does mostly make up for it. You definitely want to be going wide, and if you are, I suspect you’ll want exactly one of these. 2.0

Daysquad Marshal - Humans want to go wide in this set, so this card does just that. It’s not exciting, but fine filler if you’re in the tribe. 2.5

Divine Arrow - It’s removal, to be sure, but it’s not as good as I think people will suspect it is. These effects are solid, and you’ll take them, but try not to overload on these. 2.5

Drannith Healer - Worst case, it’s a bear with Cycling, even if you never Cycle another card. I’d put this in most Humans decks. 2.5

Garrison Cat - This is cute. It’s a cheap Mutate target early and it leaves behind a Human once it dies. These cards are always better in constructed than limited, however. 2.0

Imposing Vantasaur - Oh, c’mon. Couldn’t give us 4 power on even one White Common? Cycling makes this playable if you have payoffs. Otherwise, I wouldn’t bother. 2.0

Light of Hope - Only one mode on here is worth a card, and that’s destroying an Enchantment, and then, only if there’s a good target. Sideboard in best of 3, I wouldn’t run it in Bo1. 1.0

Maned Serval - Pretty decent Mutate target. Cheap, and with a relevant ability. I’ll give it a pass, but it’s pretty bad if you’re not in Mutate. 1.5

Patagia Tiger - Pretty playable across the board, and a solid way to push through damage in the Humans deck. Though it really should grant Flying for a turn, too. 2.5

Perimeter Sergeant - Playable in the Humans deck, but just filler. 2.0

Savai Sabertooth - This format seems very midrange, which isn’t the place for a 2 mana 3/1. If it had an ability to pass along with Mutate, it might be better. As is, there are better targets at 2 mana. 1.5

Snare Tactician - This type of card always looks like it will be a winner, but I’ve found they just don’t work out like you expect. It’s fine in the Humans deck, and occasionally you’ll tap something down with it. 2.0

Solid Footing - Every now and again, they try to have this “toughness is power” subtheme, and it rarely comes together in limited. I’d mostly pass on this unless you somehow draft the all Imposing Vantasaur deck. 1.0

Spontaneous Flight - As far as tricks go, this one’s pretty solid. It leaves behind Flying, which makes the creature useful later. 2.0

Vulkipeet - I probably should have mentioned this one above, since it’s a pretty excellent creature. If you can mutate an early drop, you’ve got a legit flying monster on your hands, and the fail safe of this being a 2/3 flier on its own is totally fine. I’d pick these for almost any white deck that isn’t entirely Humans. 2.5

Aegis Turtle - If you need an early wall, this does a decent job. But as a Mutate target, I think there are better options. This doesn’t have any abilities or stats you want to pass along. 1.5

Anticipate - Always solid, always playable. 2.0

Convolute - Also always playable, but you definitely don’t want it in aggressive decks, and Blue strikes me as tempo-focused in this format. 1.5

Crystacian - Again, if you somehow end up in the toughness deck, knock yourself out. But this has even less utility than the turtle. 1.5

Essence Scatter - Probably the best counterspell of the bunch, since most of what you want to hit in this set are Creatures. 2.0

Facet Reader - Looters are always playable, though it’s a shame it’s Human. 2.5

Frost Lynx - A classic, and still probably good here. It is a shame you don’t get to retrigger it when it’s mutated. 2.5

Frostveil Ambush - 5 mana is ... just a lot to pay for this effect, even with the option to pitch it. 1.5

Glimmerbell - One of my favorite Mutate targets, particularly if you are in Blue/Green and happen to draft Parcelbeast. (Seriously, you’ve got to try it.) But even if not, it’s a solid blocker and has good abilities to pass on. 2.5

Gust of Wind - My hunch is people will take these too highly, and forget it’s not actual removal. One is good in all decks, only take more if you have lots of fliers, since they will gum up your hand at 4 mana. 2.0

Hampering Snare - The opportunity cost of this is low, but so is the effect. I’m not in love. 1.5

Keep Safe - If you are playing Bo3 and you know they have lots of targeted removal, go for it out of sideboard. But this is not worth maindecking. 1.0

Of One Mind - Divination is playable anyway, and this is strictly better. Most Blue decks will want this. 2.5

Phase Dolphin - It’s fine. Cute with the Thieving Otter, and a decent Mutate target. 2.0

Startling Development - It’s a decent trick, but it won’t help you take down big monsters. 1.5

Wingfold Pteron - Flying will generally be the right answer for this one, unless you have reached the late game and have a good Mutate to throw on this, in which case Hexproof is as good as it gets. Most Blue decks could play one of these. 2.0

Blitz Leech - I feel like 6 mana is way too much for a 5/2, but then this does do a pretty good job of ambushing unsuspecting attackers. You can probably 2 for 1 someone with this sometimes, and then it will be good. I’ll try one and see how it goes. 2.0

Bushmeat Poacher - I don’t know how many good sacrifice enablers there will be in this set, but the payoff is real here. My guess is this will be pretty good. 2.5

Cavern Whisperer - A 4/4 with Menace is a good deal for 5 mana as a baseline, and there is extra upside if you’re able to Mutate this at all. I suspect it will be one of the signature cards in any Black deck. 3.0

Corpse Churn - The standard graveyard retrieval slot goes to this. Without there being any specific graveyard payoff, it’s a bit odd, but it works. 1.5

Dark Bargain - I usually like this effect at 3 mana, so 4 mana as an Instant is fine I suppose. Don’t overload on these, but one is good. 2.0

Dead Weight - This is always efficient and good for killing small things. 2.5

Durable Coilbug - I suppose it’s a cheap Mutate target, and if they kill your monster, you can get part of it back. Even in the sacrifice deck, this is a very expensive engine. 1.5

Gloom Pangolin - I like that Nightmare Pangolin is a creature type. But this is filler, even if it is cute filler. 1.5

Memory Leak - I don’t like paying more than 2 for this effect, even if I have the option to Cycle it. I’d skip this in most decks. 1.5

Mutual Destruction - Bone Splinters is always overvalued, but in this format, it’s even swingier than normal. If you’re in a sacrifice deck with lots of fodder, this is quite good. But in a Mutate deck, this is worse than ever, so judge it accordingly. 2.5

Nightsquad Commando - Playable in any deck, moreso in Humans. 2.5

Serrated Scorpion - I suppose this is a sacrifice..... payoff? I doubt it’s worth the card in that case. Better as a Mutate target. 1.5

Suffocating Fumes - Against Humans, this could be a blowout. Against monsters... it’s a decent combat trick. Play it and side it accordingly. 2.0

Unexpected Fangs - There isn’t a lifegain theme in this set, so this is a mediocre trick at best, though it’s solid on creatures with evasion. 1.5

Unlikely Aid - If you have essential bombs to protect, go for it. 1.5

Whisper Squad - I don’t know why I would want more 1/1s, let alone the first. Sorry, I’ll skip this. It’s not worth trying to draft. 1.0

Blazing Volley - Nope, this is strictly sideboard against Humans. The times it will be useful otherwise are few and far between. 0.5

Blisterspit Gremlin - If the tap ability were free, I’d be sold. As-is, it’s a pretty mediocre inclusion, except as a cheap Mutate target. 1.5

Cathartic Reunion - Constructed will be glad to have this, but in limited it’s only so-so. 1.5

Cloudpiercer - One of the better Red Common creatures, this guy will be good on his own or Mutating something. 2.5

Drannith Stinger - It’s a bear with Cycling, so that’s decent, I suppose.The pinging ability will be nice when it happens, but not worth building around. 2.0

Ferocious Tigorilla - Both Menace and Trample are good on a 4 power creature. I’d definitely run this. 2.5

Forbidden Friendship - I like this twist on Dragon Fodder, which gives you both a Human for those synergies and a Dinosaur for Mutate. More flexibility than it looks like at first glance. 2.0

Frenzied Raptor - If Ferocious were a theme in this set, I’d rate it higher. As is, this is filler. 1.5

Heightened Reflexes - First Strike tricks are no joke, and this will sometimes win you a combat with very little effort. 2.0

Lava Serpent - 5/5 Haste hits with a bang, and having cycling is a nice bonus. It’s a pretty reasonable top end. 2.5

Pyroceratops - If this had been at 3 mana, I’d have been sold. But at 4, it’s just a smidge to slow, especially since this is not a big spellslinger set. 2.0

Raking Claws - If First Strike is no joke, then Double Strike is really no joke. Uncaged Fury has proven itself a limited all star before, so I have high hopes for this one. It even has Cycling if you don’t need it. 2.5

Rumbling Rockslide - This is removal, and it will usually kill what you want it to kill. 2.5

Shredded Sails - I like this a fair amount, even as a maindeck inclusion, since Flying creatures are often going to be good targets. And if you don’t need it, Cycling has your back. 2.0

Spelleater Wolverine - The stats are decent, and if you get Double Strike online, it’s a big threat. I’d run this most of the time, but it’s not a high pick. 2.5

Tentative Connection - Even with the cost reduction, I don’t love Threaten effects. It gets way better with a sac outlet, so I’d consider this in R/B, but probably not anywhere else. 1.5

Adventurous Impulse - The cost is right for this effect, and it’s helpful both to find Lands in the early game and gas later on. I’d usually run one. 2.0

Almighty Brushwagg - Brushwagg’s back! Honestly, no joke, this card is playable. It has great abilities to transfer on to future Mutates, and it comes down early. Even late game, it’s an ok top deck, which you can’t say about most 1 drops. You don’t want tons of these, but they’re playable for sure. 2.0

Bristling Boar - A staple, and always playable, if unexciting. 2.0

Fertilid - Cards like this play extra well with Mutate, since the counters stay on and make the Mutated creature even bigger. You can use it for fixing & ramp early, then Mutate it and not have lost anything. But, it’s a bad topdeck and without Mutate, it’s only so-so. 2.0

Flycatcher Girrafid - Reach is probably better most of the time, but occasionally you’ll want Vigilance to keep the pressure on. It’s a solid inclusion. 2.0

Fully Grown - A decent trick that keeps Trample on for good. You definitely don’t want lots of these, but one is decent. 2.0

Greater Sandwurm - Cycling makes this way better than the usual vanilla biggie. I’d run this in most Green decks. 2.0

Honey Mammoth - This is fine, and the lifegain is a nice little touch. On balance, I’d probably rather have the 7 drop with Cycling than the 6 drop without, but they’re close. 2.0

Humble Naturalist - Decent in Creature-based ramp decks, and the mana ability also works with Mutate. A little ramp & fixing is good, too much can be a trap. 2.0

Migratory Greathorn - I like this guy a lot. He’s got solid stats to start with, and can be a decent source of ramp if you need. 2.5

Mosscoat Goriak - Serviceable, decent for Mutate. 2.0

Plummet - Sideboard card for Bo3, and maybe you can main it if you are super low on removal and don’t have fliers or reach. 1.5

Sudden Spinnerets - A mediocre trick, I’d only play if I were really short on playables and had no fliers or reach. 1.5

Survivor’s Bond - So... Green is just taking more color pie now? This effect should really stay in Black, but whatever. It’s a decent Raise Dead, especially if you have a good mix of creature types. 2.0

Thwart the Enemy - I definitely don’t normally care for Fog effects, but this one is one-sided, which makes it slightly better. I’d typically skip it, but it may prove better than I expect. 1.5

Wilt - There aren’t a lot of Artifacts & Enchantments that are must-kills in this set, so I wouldn’t main this, but Cycling mitigates it. 1.5

Sleeper Dart - Drawing a card doesn’t make this a card worth playing. It doesn’t tap the creature first, so I wouldn’t even consider it. 0.5

Springjaw Trap - Decent if you’re short on playable removal, but a bit expensive for the effect. 1.5

Evolving Wilds - Solid color fixing at no cost. Definitely a priority if you’re in 3 colors, and one is good in 2 colors as well. 2.5

Common Gainlands - Useful additional fixing, particularly if you’re in 3 colors. Don’t take good playables over these, but if you’re in 3 colors, don’t pass them for chaff either. 2.5

Whew.... that’s all the Commons in Ikoria.

#MtG #ikoria

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housebeleren · 4 years

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Random Commander Challenge: Pia and Kiran Nalaar

Well, being stuck at home has one advantage. I’ve got plenty of time to dabble around with my Magic cards. (Even if I don’t get to play them with anyone.) So I’ll take the opportunity to recap my January random commander deck: Pia and Kiran Nalaar. This is the first mono-color deck I’ve gotten, and I honestly expected that to be a big challenge. Fortunately, they lend themselves to a very clear deck build, so it came together pretty fast.

Art: Eric Deschamps

Theme

So, the Artifact theme of the deck was pretty much a given. But there are a lot of ways to build Artifacts, and, as always, I wanted something fun and flavorful. I really love the art on this card, and the design of Kaladesh as a world. And given that they make Thopters, I decided to focus on Artifact tokens and ways to make use of them. Thopters, Myrs, Pentavites, and more all made appearances here.

Additionally, one of the feelings of Kaladesh was the sense of being an inventor, and I wanted to capture that feeling in the deck a little bit (even though, yes, I know this card is from Origins). So to do that I decided to include cards that lent themselves to a feeling of creativity and invention, including a few bizarre win conditions.

Card Groups

Token Makers - There are plenty of good ways to make Artifact tokens, beyond Pia & Kiran themselves. You can really use any ones that you want, but I opted for some of big ones, like Hangarback Walker, Thopter Assembly, Myr Matrix, & Myr Battlesphere, along with some smaller early options like Thopter Engineer (also good for Haste!) and Servo Schematic, which provides a surprising amount of value. I also included Mishra’s Self-Replicator and Mirrorworks, which add to the feeling of being an inventor while also creating more Artifacts. Throw in a fair number of options for good measure, since you’ll want to make use of the tokens early and often.

Artifact Recursion - A lot of the deck is around generating value from your Artifacts, so you want plenty of ways to get them back. Scrap Trawler, Myr Retriever, and Workshop Assistant all made the cut, as well as Daretti, Trash for Treasure, Goblin Engineer, and Scrap Mastery.

Artifact Cantrips - You also want lots to do in the early game, or the deck will stall out. The best things about having lots of early low drops that draw you cards is you can frequently make use of them over and over again. Ichor Wellspring, Solemn Simulacrum, and Mind Stone are all cards that are good in this regard. I also included Filigree Familiar and Panic Spellbomb, the latter of which is particularly good combo with some of the recursive pieces in the deck. I probably should have included more, so some of the free cantrips would have been a good idea.

Payoffs - There are basically two types of payoffs for this deck. The first type are cards that go off as you make tons of Artifact Creature tokens. I chose are Purphoros (because he is the best), Impact Tremors, Reckless Fireweaver, and Ghirapur Aether-Grid, all of which can make short work of opponents over just a few turn with the right setup. The second type of payoff are sacrifice outlets. Goblin Bombardment is the most direct, but you can also create piles of mana with Krark-Clan Ironworks or Ashnod’s Altar. And with that mana, you can activate cards like Goblin Bombardment or dump a huge amount of mana into a Walking Ballista or X damage spell of your choice (Comet Storm being the obvious one).

Obviously, on top of these major card groups, you’ll want ramp (in the form of rocks, clearly), removal, and some forms of card advantage to keep the gas going. And there’s plenty of room for flavor. I included Cathartic Reunion and Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh as nice flavor gems that also work well with the deck as a whole. Oh, and Pia’s Revolution, because of course. Also, be sure to include some of the essential value Lands that you can do easily in mono color. Inventors’ Fair, Buried Ruin, and Tomb of the Spirit Dragon are all absolute musts, and there are several more I would strongly consider.

Finally, there are some alternate win conditions I’ll outline below.

Win Conditions & Lines of Play

Most of the early game will just be trying to establish a board and generate value. Use your early Artifacts to cantrip and keep the gas going, and try to generate mini-engines, while using your removal to get to a point you can set up a combo.

Nim Deathmantle - I’d be remiss not to mention this one, since it’s basically the Pia & Kiran combo. Basically, you want Nim Deathmantle & Ashnod’s Altar, plus Pia & Kiran, who make 2 Thopters on ETB. Then, you can sacrifice all three to the altar, making 6 mana, then using 4 of it to recur your commander. They come back in and make two more Thopters, but you’ve net 2 mana. Rinse & repeat for infinite mana. Then you can dump that into any mana sink you want. Generate infinite Myrs with Myr Matrix, create a massive Walking Ballista, or whatever you want. Or, if you happen to have any of the other payoffs listed above, you’re basically good. That said, the combo is pretty morbid and not particularly flavorful, so there are other options.

Hellkite Tyrant - Honestly, it’s totally possible to have 20 Artifacts on your side of the board without ever swinging, so all you really need to do is build up a board, drop the tyrant, and untap with it to win. It is a bit fragile, and you don’t really have options for creature recursion, so don’t rely on this as your only win con.

Mana Echoes - This is another path to infinite mana. Once you have a few Thopters, Myr, or whatever out, this can create massive amounts of mana for you. It’s a fun pairing with Myr Matrix, and can create an infinite army pretty quickly. Once you have piles of mana, use the same combos as you would with Nim Deathmantle to win.

Stations - Going with the “inventor” feeling, I decided to include the jank as fuck 4-card combo from Fifth Dawn: Grinding Station, Blasting Station, Salvaging Station, and Summoning Station. It’s actually a 5 card combo, because you need a 1 or 0 mana noncreature Artifact for this to work. Panic Spellbomb is my favorite, but any egg or even Sol Ring will work. Once you have all the pieces out, you can deal infinite damage to your opponents and/or mill them out. It’s never going to happen, but the good news is all the pieces actually kinda do stuff in the deck anyway, so they’re not awful inclusions. I thought about also including the “Module” cycle from Kaladesh as well, but they just don’t synergize as well with the rest of the deck.

I’m sure there are other random ways to win with the pile of cards in this deck. I mean, Artifacts tend to do that. You find combos as you play with them, so it really shouldn’t be hard to make something, and there are certainly ways to streamline it from the version I made.

Conclusion

Despite Artifact decks basically being self-contained combo engines, this is actually the first deck I’ve made in a while that didn’t win a single game. It came SO close a few times, but never quite crossed the finish line. I’m chalking it up to my opponents playing stronger decks than they have against some of my monthly builds, but who really knows.

That said, the deck was fun. There are plenty of Artifact decks, and even some better options in mono-Red, but I really enjoyed Pia & Kiran. I went a tiny bit over budget, as there were some staples I really needed. But, I didn’t go over much, and many of the most essential pieces have come in the Artifact preconstructed Commander decks of the past few years.

For February, I actually got a second mono-Red Commander in a row! It’s Kamahl, Pit Fighter up next and... hoo boy.

#MtG #edh

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housebeleren · 4 years

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Random Commander Challenge: Darigaaz Reincarnated

It’s time for my very favorite thing: a random commander! Now, I’m a bit behind, so this is actually the commander deck that I made for December. After Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire, the wheel of fate landed on yet another Jund Dragon, Darigaaz Reincarnated. The good news is they lend themselves to very different builds, so I got to be a little creative.

Art: Gregorz Rutkowski

Theme

Despite being another Jund dragon, Darigaaz Reincarnated is a lot less mechanically interesting than Vaevictis Asmadi. He’s basically just a giant beater, and way more suited for 1v1 play than multiplayer. And even his ability isn’t that great. Sure, he comes back without having to recast him, but 3 turns is an eternity in EDH. So I decided to go with the theme of reincarnation, even if I never use his ability, and made a Dragon Reanimator deck.

Card Groups

Dragons - This is the big one. You want a lot of good targets to reanimate, and having most or all of them be Dragons is not only flavorful, but it allows for some great synergies. Several inclusions from Commander 2017′s Dragon precon deck are phenomenal here, and I basically would never run this deck without Scourge of Valkas, Kolaghan, the Storm’s Fury, Atarka, World Render, Utvara Hellkite, and Bladewing the Risen. Since it’s a reanimator deck, I also included Kokusho, the Evening Star and Ryusei, the Falling Star, and a couple of wheeling Dragons: Dragon Mage and Knollspine Dragon, to help fill my grave. And lastly, I filled it with some other great cards I had access to, including recent Standard pieces Lathliss, Dragon Queen and Drakuseth, Maw of Flames. But basically, from here just pick your favorites and go to town. I included 16 Dragons in addition to my commander.

Ramp - When you’re playing with Dragons, you need lots of ramp to get there, even if your goal is partially to cheat them out. You want the option to just cast them, if need be. So, lots of rocks, plus some creature based ramp like Solemn Simulacrum and Sakura-Tribe Elder, which play nicely into the reanimator theme. Beanstalk Giant is another cute option here, as it works as both a ramp spell and a reanimation target if he ends up in your graveyard. I included 14 sources of ramp on top of my 36 lands to ensure I could always cast my beaters whenever I needed.

Reanimation - Now for the fun part. Obviously, Bladewing the Risen is perfect for this deck, but you need more. I included both Animate Dead and Dance of the Dead, so I could make some fun Worldgorger Dragon nonsense happen (because of course). On the slower side, Meren of Clan Nel Toth isn’t at her absolute best here, but she has a Dragon in her art so I can’t exactly ignore that flavor. Same goes for Fearsome Awakening. Sheoldred, Whispering One is both a good target for reanimation herself, and helps generate value the longer she stays alive. Some return to hand pieces are decent too, so Eternal Witness, Golgari Findbroker, and Palace Siege (more Dragons!) also made the cut. And lastly, Living Death for the occasional win out of nowhere, plus Finale of Eternity which served as a backup just in case. (See below)

Flavor - First up, I couldn’t do a Dragon deck without including at least one version of Sarkhan. I opted for Sarkhan, Fireblood and Sarkhan the Masterless, as they seemed the most helpful with this gameplan. Sarkhan’s Unsealing was also a fun inclusion, both for flavor and since my commander has 7 power, and I like the idea of a free Flame Wave every time I cast him (or any of the other big guys in the deck). In a Dragons deck, Crux of Fate is a must, and I also included some Dragon-themed cards, most notably Breath of Darigaaz (because flavor!), Khorvath’s Fury, which also stocks my graveyard, and Spit Flame, which is just value. Lastly, Dragon Tempest is an essential component of several win conditions, on top of being super flavorful.

Of course, you also want a couple more wheels, so I opted for Reforge the Soul and Dark Deal. And there are some staples in the colors you don’t want to miss out on, like Rakdos Charm & Terminate (bonus, the Apocalypse art features Darigaaz!) so fill out the rest of the deck with just good stuff.

Win Conditions & Lines of Play

Living Death - I mean, is there any doubt? Few things feel better than stocking up your graveyard and immediately slamming everything on to the table at once. For this path, you’d ideally like to have Dragon Tempest out or Scourge of Valkas in grave out for an insta-win. But if you don’t, the alternative is Haste. Karrthus and Urabrask are creatures you can include in the pile that grant all your things Haste, and Fires of Yavimaya and Rhythm of the Wild are good budget cards that accomplish the same goal.

Worldgorger Dragon - This is the classic Worldgorger/Animate Dead combo, and I’d be remiss not to include it in a literal Dragon Reanimator build. You do need a way to win off this, but there are a few options. Again, Dragon Tempest and Scourge of Valkas are options, and these are the main ones I opted for in my build. Other cards like Purphoros and Impact Tremors also work. Lastly, you will have infinite mana, so it’s totally possible to win off something like Comet Storm. And, incidentally, you can also use Spit Flame as a board wipe for all your opponents, which is a fun option even if you don’t have a win con ready to go.

Beating Face - I mean, we’re playing with giant Dragons. If all else fails, you can just ramp into your big beaters and keep swinging for the win. This is a totally viable path to victory, and the reanimation elements give the deck some longevity and ability to recover from mass removal, which would otherwise be the bane of big creature decks like this.

Conclusion

Between the two Jund dragons I’ve made, I think I preferred Vaevictis Asmadi just slightly, since he’s a bit more mechanically interesting. But Darigaaz Reincarnated was still quite enjoyable, and I do highly recommend Dragon Reanimator as a fun casual deck that can still hold its own against even somewhat tuned metagames. And, thanks to Commander 2017 and the relatively high density of recent cards, it’s a really easy deck to build on a budget too, with very few “necessary” pieces costing more than $5 or so. Even my build had only one card over $20, and that was Karrthus, who just is just barely over that line.

That said, I did go a bit over my new card budget, since I did need to get ahold of a few cards that were in the $2-5 range apiece, and that does add up. But, that was just for my build. Like I said, most of them are not really that essential, so I honestly could have done it and stayed completely within budget, which is great.

The deck played really well. I only won 1 out of 5 games played with it, but the deck felt appropriately competitive in every game, and I nearly pulled a win out once or twice more, just getting beaten to the punch by an opponent pulling out a combo a turn or two before I would have been able to secure my own. So all told, I actually think this deck performed very strongly, and would feel great about bringing it to a non-CEDH table.

For January, I got my first mono-color challenge, Pia and Kiran Nalaar, which proved very interesting. I’ll work to get through that recap sooner than I got through this one.

#MtG #edh

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housebeleren · 4 years

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Theros Beyond Death New Commanders

Theros is a world full of flavor, and with lots of flavor come lots of great Legendary Creatures. And boy, Wizards didn’t skimp this time around did they? Several of the Gods from original Theros are still among the best Commanders to this day, and most of the rest are staples in the 99. So it should come as no surprise that this crop of cards is a treasure trove of goodies. I imagine a huge number of these will be heavily played for years to come.

Let’s go.

As usual, I’ll start with the Buy-a-Box promo. Athreos seems pretty solid. He’s super expensive to get out, but the good news is he’s Indestructible, so barring transformation effects & exile, he’s going to stick around long enough to get value. He seems like a really solid option if you’re looking for a W/B aristocrats general, especially if you want to play with good ETB effects. The added bonus here is he can occasionally steal your opponent’s creatures too, which gives him an added dimension over a lot of otherwise similar options. I also suspect a lot of people will misread the “dies or is put into exile” text, with much frustration.

In Brawl, Athreos is close to busted, as there are so few ways to deal with him and he generates such insane value. You basically have to be fast and go under him or find creative ways to win, because he’s going to build up a massive board state really fast. And there are so few board wipes to clean up. In short, a solid choice for EDH, and a bonkers choice for Brawl.

I mean, who are we kidding? Blue/Green is the best 2-color combination in EDH, and it wins through its ability to make tons of mana and draw tons of cards. And Uro...... ramps and draws cards. Yeah, seems like a good effect to have in the Command Zone. For a more 75% direction, you can focus on the thematic direction of the “Nature’s Wrath”. Which is what I’m going to build, personally. Lots of ramp into big Giants & Elementals for stompy stompy wins. And I like that Uro can lend himself to strategies up & down the spectrum, so he’ll appeal to all types of players. Though it’s highly possible the competitive scene will ruin it by creating some busted version of this deck and putting a target on our backs.

In Brawl, this seems equally busted, because it’s not like there’s anything you can do in Standard with piles of mana in Blue & Green, is there? Not at all.

Kroxa is really cool design. Feels perfect for the colors, but still something a little different and unique. The more competitive community immediately jumped on this as a Worldgorger/Animate Dead build, since he works as a built-in win-con for the combo, but it’s also quite possible to build a solid R/B punisher deck around this. There are also the all-in discard builds, but that seems particularly miserable, and unnecessary, since it’s super easy to get tons of activates off Kroxa himself, with the help of some reanimation effects.

For Brawl, I’d build this as a Red/Black control deck, using Kroxa to strip the opponent’s hand, clearing the board with removal, and eventually winning either with Kroxa as a massive beater, or with some of the strong planeswalkers in the color pair (of which there are several). For what it’s worth, the correct play pattern is basically always to cast Kroxa the first time, let him go to the Command Zone, then cast him from there for 4 before saving him in the graveyard for Escaping.

Polukranos looks like mostly a Standard powerhouse, at first glance. But the more time I spend with it, the more I’m convinced it would make a pretty solid Commander inclusion as well. If you’re building with Polukranos at the helm, you’ll want plenty of library filter & self-mill effects, as well as plenty of recursion. It’s often fine to just keep reanimating him as a 6/6 removal engine, but the Escape is there as well in case you need. Some ways to add extra counters to him seem good as well, and there are a plethora of those in these colors, particularly Green, go figure. He’d also be good in the 99 of other +1/+1 counters decks, as a good payoff when you need.

Seems good in Brawl.

Klothys seems likely to be way better than people are likely to expect. The closest comparison I can think of is actually Pharika, but with the added potential to ramp you and incidentally hate on more than just Creatures, all for no additional investment than your initial 3 mana. The immediate concept that springs to mind is actually Land Destruction, which is a kinda dick way to go, but probably quite effective. She’s an interesting card, and lends herself to very creative deckbuilding, rather than having an obvious build, and I always appreciate that.

For Brawl, you really can just build this as Red/Green good stuff, and it’ll work. Enough cards will naturally end up in the graveyard to fuel her ability and turn her into a completely viable clock on your opponents.

Purphoros seems nuts in EDH. Mono-Red typically isn’t great (unless you’re going full Artifact mode), so I actually envision Purphoros in the 99 of other Sneak Attack style decks for added redundancy. He’ll be a pretty obvious inclusion in Gruul & Jund sacrifice decks, particularly those that focus reanimating big fatties for massive swings.

In Brawl, there are some good options. Drakuseth comes to mind as a natural pairing with this, and there are definitely some other good targets to cheat out, but it’s unlikely he’ll beat out Torbrand as the mono-Red general of choice, particularly for 1v1, where that card is able to close out games ridiculously fast.

Nylea is likely going to get a lot of flack, compared to the other Gods, where she’s less obviously busted. That said, she strikes me as a pretty viable option for a creature heavy build, along the lines of what you might build for Yeva, Nature’s Herald. The cost reduction is relevant, and could be pretty gross at the helm of Elfball as well. She’s also a reasonable option for a Primal Surge deck, so I actually think there are plenty of possible directions you can go, and people will slowly figure that out.

For Brawl, my guess is Nissa, Who Shakes the World is still the best.

Heliod has already attracted tons of attention for the instant combo with with Walking Ballista, and having one half of a two card combo in your Command Zone is not a bad way to start. Beyond that, as far as mono-White generals go, Heliod has a lot more potential than some. He can grow into a massive threat very quickly, and partners perfectly with a the plethora of life-gain payoffs in the color. He’s also a shoe-in for lifegain Generals like Ayli & Karlov, so he’d work great in the 99 of several decks.

In Brawl, you have several good options to fill up the deck, but it’ll be tough to be a better aggro deck than Red, and White just doesn’t have the staying power for the long game, so I’m expecting most of the other Gods to be better.

Oooh Thassa baby, it’s so good to see you again! I love that they took this to another direction from the original card, but it’s still interesting and fun. My immediate thought here wasn’t actually to make a flicker deck, but to make a stealing deck, since they templated her in the style of Conjurer’s Closet, where the card doesn’t return under its owner’s control, but back under your control. Meaning, if you steal something with something like Willbreaker or Roil Elemental, you get to keep them! This also makes her a great inclusion in the 99 of stealing commanders like Sen Triplets or Rubinia Soulsinger. Or, y’know... put her in a flicker deck.

In Brawl, Thass is pretty great, since there are some amazing things to blink with her. Most notably is Agent of Treachery, and it shouldn’t be hard at all to close out the game after landing that.

Erebos is here to serve, and I am loving this design. In an aristocrats deck, this version is arguably better than OG Erebos, and that’s saying a lot. But the original version will do better in just any ole Black deck. As a Commander, you definitely want to build this around cheap value creatures you can sacrifice for extra value. There’s no shortage of good mono-Black generals, so build around this one if you really love the flavor.

For Brawl, it’s tough to say if Ayara or Erebos is better, but you’ll definitely want both in each other’s deck.

On to the Rare legends, we start with Atris. I love me some Fact or Fiction, but I need just a little more oomph to be a Legend worth building around. Might be a fun inclusion in a flicker deck, but I doubt anyone’s going to be clamoring to build an Atris deck. Even in Brawl, where there are plenty of better & more interesting Blue/Black generals. (Ashiok & Lazav come to mind immediately.)

There’s no shortage of Red/Blue Artifact-based commanders, so Dalakos has some tough competition. My guess is there are still some stronger options, but Dalakos has a unique angle by caring about Equipment, which is typically more of a White-aligned Artifact direction. So there’s definitely an interesting build here, probably for 75% tables. In more competitive decks, I could see Dalakos seeing play in plenty of Artifact builds.

I’m not sure if there’s enough good Equipment in Standard to make Dalakos worth building around in Brawl, but we’ll see as future sets come out if there’s anything spicy that makes this worth building.

Gallia is loads of fun. She gives support to an underserved tribe, has a card advantage ability that feels very fun & appropriate for the color pair, and is just some fantastic art to boot. It’s unlikely that this will be a particularly competitive deck, but fans of Satyrs and casual aggro will rejoice, and rightfully so. In Brawl, she’s much more impressive from a power standpoint, and will likely be a popular choice from this set.

Haktos is a super creative design, and one of the best top-down flavor wins of the set. (Not to mention fine AF.) In EDH, he’s a very clear Voltron commander, since he is close to unblockable and dodges most spot removal. That said, you can’t reliably equip or enchant him, so cards that buff him up generally will be staples in this deck. I’d look to cards like Bastion Protector and Bloodsworn Steward, which can put him in the key 7+ power range without an issue, and plenty of spot removal to get rid of pesky blockers that happen to fall on the chosen number. And of course, in those colors you’re also probably going to go for some extra combat effects. It’s unlikely to be super competitive, but honestly this deck seems like a ton of fun.

For Brawl, he’s solid in 1v1, but I don’t love him for multiplayer because there will be more creatures and removal around in the 2-4 CMC range than in EDH, so he may be even easier to deal with. Sometimes he’ll completely run away with the game, but he’s such an obvious target that he’ll just get removed over and over again.

Kunoros has a lot going on for 3 mana, but there’s not much to build around here. It’s basically a hatebear for Graveyard-heavy metas, but in White/Black that’s probably actually more of a liability than a feature, since you lose out on powerhouse cards like Karmic Guide and Sun Titan. I suppose Graveyard to Hand still works, so cards like Ravos are still on the table, but it seems like more trouble than it’s worth.

Same story for Brawl. In both formats, I see him as a role-player hatebear in the 99 of decks that want to disrupt as it grinds to a win.

I’m always for a new tribe getting a Legendary creature, though who’s aching to build a harpy deck, I have no idea. It’s also tough because Black is not a particularly strong Enchantment color, so I really don’t know if there’s a deck here. (Watch me get this as a random build one month.) My best use case for Aphemia would be in the 99 of an Enchantment deck like Daxos the Returned or something.

Spiders are also a fun, unique tribe, though you definitely want Black to make the best use of them. Arasta, again, seems like there’s not much of a build here except as an incidental hoser against all-spell decks. Maybe if your meta is all Talrand decks?

Taranika is a cool design, and phenomenal in Limited, but yeah there just isn’t enough here for EDH, even in the 99. Maybe she’ll be an inclusion in the 59 for Brawl? But that’s really as much as I can possibly see here.

Of the mono color Rare Legends, Thryx is the only one with real EDH potential, from what I can see. He has Flash, so you can hold up counterspells, which is exactly what mono-Blue wants to do. And from there, he lets you cast massive spells at a bit of a discount, and has incidental “can’t be countered” text against opposing Blue manges, which is a fair amount of action. I’m considering him for the 99 of my Grixis Vial Smasher deck, since that deck wants to cast all kinds of big dumb spells.

Seems like there are better mono Blue options for Brawl, however.

On to the Uncommons. There isn’t going to be a lot here for Commander, since these are mostly balanced for Limited play. Eutropia is a bit interesting, and there are some possibilities. She’s in the best EDH colors, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to conceive of a way to generate a ton of mana, use Deadeye Navigator to flicker an Enchantment Creature a bunch of times, then swing for lethal. There are certainly better Green/Blue generals, but honestly that’s a lot of action for an Uncommon. In the 99, I could see her in various Enchantress style builds as a fun flavorful inclusion.

There are no shortage of powerhouse Green/Blue options for Brawl, but Eutropia could be a fun experiment to take in a different direction than you would Uro, Vannifar, or Kiora.

Siona is a super interesting design, as an Aura buildaround. Of course, the hotness here is that she immediately goes infinite with Shielded by Faith, which gives her way more viability than she would otherwise. Throw in a Concordant Crossroads and you have an insta-win, and they’re all super easily tutored pieces in these colors. There’s also potential just as an inclusion in the 99 of decks that run lots of Auras, like Uril or something.

In Brawl, this could be a really fun aggro deck for 1v1, though I think it’ll be a struggle in multiplayer.

The monocolor Uncommon Legends all basically have no viability as Commanders, so I’ll do these Lightning Round style.

Anax - Could be an inclusion in the 99 of certain OG Purphoros builds or other Red decks that want lots of tokens.

Renata - There are some decks that really care about Counters that I suppose this works in. She’s really cute with Persist, but you’ll need more colors to be able to make use of the really good Persist cards.

Daxos - Daxos is doing his best Soul Sister impression, and it’s really working. I’d slot him into any decks that want that effect, especially since many of them are White/Black with sacrifice outlets as well.

Callaphe - Probably the weakest of the bunch. Maaaayyybe possible in a mono Blue devotion deck? But I’m not suspecting this will see any play.

Tymaret - For the most part a pretty strict upgrade over Withered Wretch, not counting Zombie synergies. The Wretch is a card I run more than a lot of people do, and I see myself running this for similar reasons.

Alirios - The dream here is to flicker him multiple times and get an army of reflections. It’s possible in a heavy flicker deck like Brago or something, but it’s not enough to run him on his own.

And finally, the Planeswalkers for Brawl. Ashiok strikes me as particularly good as a Blue/Black control build. It should be pretty easy to keep the board clear early until you drop Ashiok, then the incremental value will be overwhelming pretty quickly.

You best believe I built this deck, and it is fire. There are so many good Enchantments legal right now that it’s trivial to put together a pretty solid build. The best part is, a lot of the good removal in White are Enchantments anyway, so you can often use his +1 to find removal, without having to tick him down. This deck has been a ton of fun, and it goes toe-to-toe with a lot of the best decks really well.

While a powerhouse for Standard, Elspeth isn’t quite priced to move for Brawl. There are just other, most powerful options. I’d generally run Heliod instead, and include Elspeth in the 59 if you really want.

Usually the Planeswalker Deck cards are awful, but this Ashiok isn’t half bad. It’s a fun Blue/Black reanimation deck, and I enjoy that. It’s unfortunate you can’t activate her -5 right away, which is the real thing holding this back. Lazav is probably better as a Blue/Black creature build, but I could actually see this.

And finally, Planeswalker Deck Elspeth. Honestly, I’d rather run this as my mono-White general than Sun’s Nemesis, since there’s a pretty solid Devotion build to be made. Not saying it’s good or anything, but it’s actually probably better than the main-set version, and that’s saying something.

Okay! That’s all the Legends from Theros Beyond Death. There are honestly too many of them, it’s hard to keep up! I’m building Uro for EDH and Calix for Brawl. What about you?

#MtG #theros beyond death

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housebeleren · 4 years

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Throne of Eldraine Draft Format Review

Theros Beyond Death is fully upon us, and players are starting to discover the ins and outs of this new Limited season. But before I dive fully into that, it’s time for one final goodbye to the previous set, with my Throne of Eldraine draft format review. Here are the criteria I evaluate:

Speed - Consisting of its Tempo, Aggression, and Explosiveness

Variety - Consisting of its balance between the Colors/Archetypes, Threats to Removal, & Deck Strategies

Depth - Consisting of the depth within individual cards, within archetypes, and within the metagame as the whole

Fun - Consisting of the Flavor & Theme, the Gameplay itself, and the amorphous “X-Factor”

I’ll also go through my thoughts on the themes & mechanics, any noteworthy decks, notes on draft strategy, and give it a final grade.

Art: Jana Schirmer

Seriously, this picture is so much a mood.

Speed

Tempo - Decks in Throne of Eldraine varied wildly, with some hyper aggressive decks getting blazing fast starts, and some slower control decks spending the first few turns just responding. That said, the risk of not having any low curve is very real, even if just to stall, so I’d say the tempo of this format is actually fairly fast, as the games start off quite quickly. You want your curve to start around turn 2.5 on average, to avoid being left in the dust.

Aggression - Despite the presence of some archetypes that lean aggressive, most of the mechanics actually push the opposite direction. Adventures incentivize getting maximum value out of your creatures, so most of them won’t get played on curve. That said, many of them are combat tricks, so combat matters more in this format than usual. Adamant had little effect. But the real story here is Food. Food, with its persistent ability to regain 3 life a pop, extended games, and gave slower decks plenty of time to make up for slow starts. That, combined with some really good defensive creatures and strong removal, skewed the overall feel of the format much slower than I think anyone anticipated.

Explosiveness - If anything, this format is defined by overly slow, grindy games. So much so that it was completely possible for games to come to a complete standstill and eventually end by one deck naturally milling itself out. (Which is a miserable way to go.) Some decks were capable of explosive quick wins, and there were a few near-unbeatable bombs (all three Planeswalkers come to mind). But overall, this was a format lacking in game-ending power.

Variety

Balanced Colors/Archetypes - As a whole, all colors feel playable. Green/Black as an archetype is slightly stronger than the others on balance, and Blue could come up with ridiculous control decks at times. But no color pair felt unplayable, even Red/White, which has been consistently the weakest in recent sets. You had to get deep into Knights (giggity?) for it to work, but if you did, the payoffs were there.

Balanced Threats to Removal - The removal in this set was strong. Every color got cheap, effective removal, though White/Blue struggled to deal with certain types of threats, namely those with passive abilities like Irencrag Pyromancer and Mad Ratter, of which there were a lot in the set. But it wasn’t a huge issue overall. The removal felt very strong in general. Even “expensive” removal like Bake Into a Pie was well-worth the mana, given the added bonus.

Balanced Deck Types - Between aggro, midrange, and control, I am happy to report that all major deck types had a presence in the format. I found midrange and control to be slightly more effective than pure aggro, since board stalls were fairly regular occurrences and you need something to push through. Blue-based mill decks were heavily overrepresented in Arena draft, and the resulting digital format was markedly worse than in paper.

Depth

Individual Card Depth - Throne of Eldraine felt a little more linear than most previous sets, with most cards having a clear best deck. Where it did well was on creature typing, with cards like Weaselback Redcap able to fit into both the Knights deck and the non-Humans deck. Similarly, some creatures with effects made use of their typing to work in multiple ways, like how Tome Raider combines with Draw 2 synergies and non-Human synergies. Witching Well was an all-star in this regard, fueling the Artifact deck and the Draw 2 deck effectively, making it much better than it appeared at first blush. But these examples were more the exception than the rule, with most cards either being just generically good so you’d always run them regardless or being specific to one deck.

Depth Within Archetypes - Most archetypes had a little wiggle to them. The strictest build was Red/Blue Draw 2, which really needed at least 2 good payoffs (like Mad Ratter or Improbable Alliance) to work, and Blue/Black control really wanted a Merfolk Secretkeeper or two (or three or four) to activate some of its pieces early and enable the mill win. I’d say the format was pretty average on this front, with some archetypes feeling a little narrow, while others felt pretty open.

Metagame Depth - Other than the occasional monocolored build, it was pretty easy to feel out what deck you were going against pretty quickly, and the metagame stabilized very fast. My feeling is that matchups were pretty consistent, but it’s unclear if that’s backed up by any actual fact. But in my head, for example, White/Blue generally beat Green/Black, but lost to Red/Blue. Etc. Don’t know if that’s actually true, but even if it isn’t, the metagame didn’t feel particularly deep, compared with some of the formats over the last year.

Fun

Flavor & Theme - Surprise surprise, this is the one place where Throne of Eldraine knocked it out of the park. The flavor and theme was spot-on, and it was enormously fun to mix and match various adventure & fairy tale tropes. In fact, I’d argue that the flavor and theme was a huge part of what made this format fun to play at all. The imaginative and whimsical flavor is the clear high point of the set, no question.

Gameplay - As hinted at above, the gameplay was not the high point of the set. Adventures played really well, and I’d love to see those return again, and I actually enjoyed the mono-color draft, which gave it a slightly different feeling than most other sets. But the games stalled out with regularity, and the omnipresent lifegain of Food could make it incredibly difficult to close out. Any format where naturally drawing your deck is a real thing that happens has a problem.

The X-Factor - Combining the flavor & gameplay, let’s just say this set was really variable. Some games & some matchups felt really fun and dynamic, while others were a miserable slog. This was particularly true on Arena, where it was too easy to force a Blue mill deck or a good Black/Green food deck, which were the two most problematic archetypes from a gameplay perspective. The paper metagame had a little more aggro to balance it out.

Themes & Mechanics

Adventures - Adventures were the highlight of the set, as far as I’m concerned. They were fun and flavorful designs, but were also incredibly powerful, on average. The cards were highly flexible, adding up to more than the sum of their parts, and were an incredible way to make sure you had a good mix of spells & creatures in your deck. I’d love to see Adventures return in a future set, though I’m curious how much design space they actually have. On the one hand, it seems like it should be enormous, because you can combine spells & creatures in basically infinite ways. On the other hand, it could be difficult to design cards where the spell half and the creature half complement each other to form good play patterns. Either way, these were a hit.

Food - I may be alone in this, but I sincerely hope Food never returns, at least as a major mechanic. (I’d be okay with an occasional Food card in supplemental sets, or something.) But this mechanic was honestly not as interesting as it seemed at first. Unlike Clues or Treasures, which both played well, Food ended up mostly serving to prolong games unnecessarily. In a format prone to board stalls to begin with, this was not a good thing in my book. It’s possible that it will work better in a faster format, but honestly, I’m okay if we don’t get Food again.

Adamant - I really liked the play of Adamant. It’s the non-flashy “workhorse” mechanic of the set, but those are such an important part of what makes a set work. Adamant served a useful purpose, encouraging decks to lean on one color more than another, and made for interesting decisions during draft. It requires a mono-color focus to work, but I’d be happy to see Adamant come back in the right set.

Knights - Knights have always been a fringe tribe, which is strange given that Magic is a fantasy property. I really enjoyed the way the Eldraine world was constructed with its knights in each color, along with their corresponding virtues and styles, but it was smart to consolidate them in just 3 colors for Limited play. The one issue I had here was that the Knights lacked a particular mechanical cohesiveness, generally just being the “aggro” tribe and having some one-off synergies here and there. I’d love to see Knights return sometime to get a little more direct focus.

Non-Humans - Like Knights, the non-Humans theme lacked a strong mechanical identity, and served mostly as a catch-all term to form Limited archetypes around. It seemed like a “this set” need to have an opposing tribe to counterbalance Knights. I would be surprised to see this again soon.

Monocolor - I sorta covered this with Adamant, but Monocolor was a theme independent of that one mechanic, with heavy mana requirements, lands that rewarded going deep on a color, and lots of Artifacts to ensure there was plenty to go around. This was one of the first sets where I’ve been able to successfully draft mono-color decks, and it was really enjoyable to be able to do so. They’d be wise to revisit the same tricks the next time they want to do a mono-color focus.

Noteworthy Decks

Blue Mill - Oh, the bane of my Arena drafting experience the past 3 months. How you taunt me. I mean, what is there to say here? In Arena, the strategy is just grab every single Merfolk Secretkeeper that came your way (it was relatively trivial to get 3-5 of them), and have the rest just be removal & other defensive creatures to gum up the board until your opponent decked. In paper, it was a little harder to pull off, but it would still happen with an early Folio of Fancies or just some good luck. Sometimes mono-Blue, sometimes paired with Black for cards like Drown in the Loch and other removal. This was a truly miserable deck to play against, to the point that people were reportedly running more than 40 cards in their decks just to preempt it. I’m happy when a milling deck is possible. But this was just too easy to spam. Hopefully Wizards learned their lesson and also is fixing their draft bots.

Seven Dwarves - Just as the name implies, this deck is entirely centered around the card Seven Dwarves. Grab as many copies as you can, and go to stomping town. Most often paired with Green to find some non-Human synergies, plus that’s the best other color for aggro, and this truly is an aggro deck. It comes together more than you’d expect, since the dwarves are a low pick if you’re not looking for them.

Glitter Princess - This deck was typically a variant of White/Blue Artifacts & Enchantments, except this build centers on getting a Beloved Princess on the field and enchanting it with All That Glitters. With just a few more pieces, the princess becomes a near unblockable threat that completely outscales both Red & Green removal in short order. The other colors all have good answers, so having Blue mana open to counter their attempts is a crucial component to this deck, and part of why I rarely saw it in other color combinations. There is a White/Green version with Tall As a Beanstalk, but usually that deck wanted to center on Adventures, and didn’t have room for the Princess or Auras.

Strategy Notes

Throne of Eldraine drafts start off pretty straightforward. If you’re not going to try to spam one of the obnoxious decks above (I kid, mostly), the usual pick order of bombs - removal - evasive creatures usually is the way to start. Once you have a sense of what’s open and where your color pair is leading you, however, things change dramatically. Finding the needed payoff cards becomes top priority, as they are few and far between.

For example, once I’m feeling Red/Blue (I don’t even have to be committed, just considering it), I will take a Mad Ratter over just about anything but the most absurd of bombs. Even over removal like Slaying Fire. In the same vein, if I’m in pack two and have drafted a decent White/Green Adventures deck, I will take a Wandermare over basically all removal, because there is likely to be more removal, but that may be my only really great payoff I’ll see. And the games where that card singlehandedly wins will be worth it. The trick is not to speculate on payoffs too early, because it’s easy to get attached to them if you pick them right away. But once you’re thinking the archetype is available, the payoffs become an enormous priority. That small pool of cards will often be the deciding factor against board stalls.

Monocolor decks are possible, but you’re still most likely to need to draft a second color to ensure you have enough playables. Don’t take bad Artifacts just to force monocolor. If you have strong one-color payoffs, consider trying to draft with that as a primary and “splash” your second color. It’s often correct for your deck to lean ⅔ or so towards the main color, rather than a more even split. The mana base should reflect this, leaning 10-7 or 11-6, though I usually wouldn’t skew much more than that unless my second color was truly just a splash. On the flipside, two color decks with a third color splash are also possible, but a little less common than usual.

Final strategy note: Adventures are good. Nearly all of them are better than they look at first glance. If you’re comparing two cards that seem evenly matched, but only one of them is an Adventure, picking the Adventure will be right more than half the time. The flexibility and inherent card advantage is just too good a deal, and it’s worth more than it seems.

Final Thoughts

I think I’ve pretty well made my thoughts clear. Throne of Eldraine is a flavor home run, and that’s honestly the most fun part about it as a format. It’s insanely enjoyable locking people up in a tower, having your knights joust, and baking your foes into a pie. (That said, baking a pie takes forever, and is a flavor fail as an Instant. Just saying.) On top of that, Adventures are fantastic, and easily the mechanical highlight of the set.

On the other hand, Food proved to be more frustrating than it seemed at first blush, and the format’s tendency to get frozen in the midgame with no profitable attacks on any side led to a lot of slow, aggravating losses. Combined with the generally linear archetypes and mostly static metagame, and this was a format I think most people are ready to leave behind. And it probably won’t be a particularly popular one to revisit in the future. (Though I bet these would be really fun inclusions in a chaos draft!) It’s not awful, but it’s not great either.

Overall Grade: C

#throne of eldraine #MtG

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