So without further ado....we will start at the top.
ANGEL OF SERENITY
Dear Saint Rosewater,
Stop doing this to us.
-Your loyal fans
Angel of infinite beatdowns is easily the scariest threat in the set. This card is going to make people lose games....and sleep. And probably self-esteem. This card compares favorably with Elesh Norn (an easy indicator that it is ridiculously over powered), which makes me very sad. White has it all in commander. You get a lot more for a W than you do for a B or a R these days. Hope you didn't have an aggressive game plan....because you can't beat this card. This is just one more reason you need to be jamming plains on to the table. Many of the top tier strategies already have a spot for this guy. Mono white voltron, 8.5 Tails, Reanimator style decks, and any number of 3 and 4 color control brews are going to be packing this. There are countless ways to cheat this into play and it is a bargain at full price. There is no single card in magic that answers this so you are guaranteed card advantage the second you draw it. You need to be prepared for this card. You will be building around it whether it is in your deck or theirs. Also, the color pie infractions are all over the place here. You might have heard of Journey to Nowhere and just said...oh it's a Nourney to Joe-where Angel. This card used to be Black. Journey used to be Oubliette. Fiend Hunter? Faceless Butcher. Angel of Serenity is also: Gravedigger Hoverguard Sweepers Cremate and about 6 other cards that are not White. This is the MO of R&D lately. Take a solid card, make it White, make it better, PRINT IT!
Psst: wanna see something gross? Read Momentary Blink Now read Angel of Smashed Dreams here.
My biggest concern about Angel is this: Everyone will play it. The diversity that makes commander a fun and interesting format is getting trampled by all of these ridiculously OP mythic bombs that drop out of every set. If you're deck has white: Play this card. If not...well you're wrong. Sad, but true. This is the OFFICIAL FunCrusher of RTR. Have fun having no fun.
Look at the VALUE! This card is a pretty sweet little beater. The problem with voltron decks? You're all in on one threat. This guy just keeps dropping babies off the back off the truck while he taxes your opponents life total in the early game. This guy wants a Jitte for Christmas. I don't see El capitan wrecking any tables, but keep in mind Preeminent Captain is a common inclusion in Soldier themed decks.
JACE, ARCHITECT OF THOUGHT
An important aside. I like the power level of the planeswalkers in this set. They don't dominate the game by themselves, they take extra effort to protect, and they don't win the game immediately. This is the power level that pdubs need to be at to be fair, but respectable cards.
What a silly little man. I was very close to not even including this card in the review because I consider it to be UNPLAYABLE. D^2 has no way to protect himself, no ETB or LTB trigger, and no real way to generate card advantage. R&D probably didn't think this one through. It seems cool, get a huge, cheap guy, that grows! What Demon forgot about is that they don't have to sacrifice, they can just use that guy to chump and you don't even get the counter. Power and toughness are not enough to make a creature a threat in this format. Even if demon was an 8/8 I wouldn't be playing it. How does this card beat an Azami? or a Niv-Mizzet? Or a SoFaF?
No Trample?! Seriously Ken Nagle? Next.
It's so close to being nuts. So close. This card is a rare. If it cost 4BB and also had Lifelink then it would be Mythic. If this had a way to protect your board or better yet recur itself like a good vampire should then I would slam it my decks. You need a board presence before El Vamperino gets crazy, but if you are going big...this is a cute way to do it...I've got nothing. This card isn't cutting it. Play Grave Titan. He's the real King of the Necropolis.
On a second note: if this guy were legendary. I would love him. He is begging for a black token army to lead into battle.
When you are testing decks, it is important to find out if you can consistently beat the Relentless Rats deck. You should be able to if you expect to be competitive. Well, that deck just got some hot new tech. Pack Rat allows the rats deck to convert extra lands into large creatures late in the game. It also presents a big beater that comes down early. Pack Rat is very niche, but it is a critical piece that the deck has been missing. Before, you had to worry about getting disrupted by constant Raven's Crime action. Now they have a choice of eating your hand or your life total.
UTVARA HELLKITE
This card...is not terrible. I do not recommend casting it. Bring it into play off a Sneak Attack or a Cauldron Dance. You will probably get a free 6/6 for your trouble. If you play this card right, it will demand an instant speed answer. We like value here at the general zone. This guy is no eldrazi, but it has some value added. Again: No Trample? Does R&D even care about 6/6 fliers? Everything that costs more than 6 should needs haste or card advantage. Everything with more than 4 power needs trample. That's just me though.
Spawnwrithe is pretty good. This card is much worse, but still doable. It doesn't need to connect in order to make token and it comes with evasion. Plus, it takes a lot of 2/2's to do 40 damage. It only takes a couple 6/6's.
This card is missing a lot of important words. Trample, Intimidate, Gain 5 life, make a 3/3 beast, draw a card....SOMETHING PLEASE! Still, Scavenge is strong. Don't underestimate it. Dead guys who come back for value later in the game go a long way towards winning. Especially with the abundance of Hexproof creatures in Green. Jarad's Orders for this guy and Thrun. Go to work.
This card is interesting. Its power level is definitely low. Its cost is way too high. The question of whether or not it is worth the price is what you get from the Populate. Depending on how deep you have gone with Spitting Image you might just play this. I've heard of people doing silly things for a Klondike Bar. Let's find out how far people are willing to go for a Blightsteel Token.
I'm trolling. Don't play this garbage.
I can think of a few ways to drop this guy into play. Even if you put this guy on the board for free it isn't that great. It has to Die to make tokens and then it shuffles back in. I'd rather have the Iron Giant. I will literally never play this card. SOMEBODY will though. I'd recommend using this to make them look silly: Cryptic Command.
Nope. I can think of better ways to Spend Seven Mana.
There are easier ways to win, but this is a pretty funny one. Get it some new shoes and put the shields up!
Elocutors is a completely unfair, unfun, under the radar way to steal a game. Especially in multiplayer where games go long and people have bigger problems to worry about then your ridiculous Proliferate deck with Clockspinning. If even blocks while you wait for it to tick up. The only real problem here is that you can only get a victory off the upkeep trigger. Careful wording by R&D ruins all my fun. Let's be honest though, there is a nonzero number of people out there like me who have been trying to get the word FILIBUSTER on a magic card for years. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.
Don't be fooled. This card is strong. The last thing you want to do is start casting spells on your opponent's end step, tap out like a fool, and then get slapped with a Cruel Ultimatum. The possibilities with this card are endless. Yeva is good. This doesn't have Flash, but it does have Fyling and Haste. I will accept this tradeoff.
If you are anything like ol' Grandpa Growth then you like to pass with a whole mess of untapped lands. This card beats for 4 in the air every turn and makes your opponents real nervous. Hope you brought your counterspells. You will need them.
I am all in on this guy! Are you down on cards? He's got an app for that. Do you have more cards than you know what to do with? Well...he has an app (cannon) for that too. I wouldn't normally include a guy like this in an article about threats, but the ability to machine gun guys for 6 or 7 uncounterable damage makes him a pretty spicy little man. Compare this with Knollspine Invocation. It lets you play Blue, so...yea that's pretty cool. You only have to pay R instead of X, discount. It generates extra cards that you can use to FIRE THE CANNONS. The only real problem is it can't go to the face. It's not perfect, but its a guy you want on your side. I can see this being a risky play against Blue. You don't want to be left holding the bag when they steal it.
I typically don't pay much attention to art or flavor, but this is a sexy piece of work. This Wesley Burt fellow is starting to hit his stride, I think. I wouldn't be surprised if he isn't tapped for more cards in the future. Also, from the flavor perspective: the creative team seems to be backing off the no guns restriction. Snapnasty is on every table these days.
I'm not a big fan of the RB color combo. This doesn't do a whole lot to convince me that I should change my mind. There is something important to think about here. If you Unleash it, they can't even trade off for a Titan. First Strike is a nice boost. Needs more Trample, but if you are seriously trying to beatdown I wouldn't fault to for riding this bad boy into battle. Well, I might actually.
This guy is a pretty sizeable beatdown. Turn 1: Goblin Lackey, drop something nasty in play. If you can pump him to 5 or more on Turn 3 he is going to be tough to race. Late in the game he is just enormous. Sadly, he has no protection and forces you to play into board sweeping effects. At CMC 3 though, the game might actually end before your opponent can stabilize.
Tailor made threats for Skullbriar.dec? RTR is for you. This interacts favorably with Undying creautres, which is awesome. In case you haven't paying attention Black Mikaeus is a real card. If you have anytime of token theme in your deck. Bring this guy to the party. He loves to pump your little guys into big beaters. He also lets you live the dream by building your own Doubling Season. Slam him on the table next to your Parallel Lives and go to work.
Vraska has some of the same problems that Jace does. Doesn't interact favorably with a full board, BUT it can be a powerful removal spell that adds value later. This is pretty much what I want a Planeswalker to be doing in GB deck: killing their junk. A glaring weakness is this awkwardness of the +1. They can still just kill you while Vraska ticks up. It's a couple turns until her ultimate. Even worse, they can just smash Vraska with a big creature and it was just a sorcery speed removal spell. Speaking of her ultimate, it is not even a guarantee you will win the game if you pull it off. The tokens are fragile, don't have haste, and don't have evasion. Vraska is not that great when you are behind, but early in the game or when you have total control of the board she is pretty gross. I like the idea of a repeatable Bramblecrush that can prevent some damage to me and maybe win the game. Get one, play it. Be happy. Just don't believe the hype.
Jeez. Value wurm. Titans part 2. This guy is everything you want in a beater. Multiple bodies laugh at spot removal, Trample laughs at chump blocking. I am look forward to spitting all over this guy. Rhys can't wait.
This guy compares pretty well with Grave Titan and Broodmate Dragon. It just plays well with so many other cards. Populate, copy effects, blink effects, reanimation effects, Through the Breach.
Get used to this guy. You will be seeing a lot of him in Standard and Commander.
Deja vu. I feel like I already talked about this card....hmm, must be nothing. just like the Two horn special, going buy one get one free on centaurs isn't very exciting, but if you get something sweet out of it then you are in business. The cost on this card is also much more reasonable. The real question I have with these Populate spells is: why not just activate your Rhys, the Redeemed instead of casting them?
This seems pretty strong. Beatdown, get a dude. You need to get through for a few hits before it really starts to matter, but it's a threat that grows. This card needs Trample so badly. Are you starting to get the idea?
I am not sure where this guy really fits into the curve for a token deck. I think I would rather be swinging with Spawnwrithe, but a second copy can't be that bad. Temple cannot wait to get hooked up with double strike. I see a climbing trip in your future.
That is all for today. Hope you enjoyed it. I will be back soon with a look at the various utility cards in the set. Until then,
Untap, Draw....Your turn.
No comments:
Post a Comment